Broken
by Mrs-diAngelo25
Summary: Kyra's life has been pretty much miserable since she got home last summer from Camp Half-Blood. It wasn't the nearly perfect life she had envisioned when she got her mother back to normal. It's the complete opposite. Rated T for some depressing themes and cursing and a bunch of other stuff. Pt. 4 in my fanfic series.
1. Chapter 1

**Broken**  
**Chapter 1**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

_"I've had enough of this. I'm leaving." Lucas says, pushing away from the table and walking towards the bedroom._

_I look at mom and her unresponsive expression then get up from the kitchen table and hurry after Lucas. I enter the bedroom to see his big suitcase on the bed and some clothes flung into it. I drift over to the walk-in closet to see Lucas yanking button up shirts and dress pants off of their hangers. He turns around and sees me and his angry expression softens a little._

_"I just can't take anymore of this Kyra. Ever since we got back, she's been off. Doing outrageous things and drinking. I just-I can't take it. She's not who she used to be." he says, pushing past me to go back over to the open suitcase._

_"I know. I don't know what happened. She seemed so happy at the spa then when I came home she was completely different." I say, running my hand through my short, choppy hair._

_"I just want you to know, I'm not doing this to hurt you. I would never hurt you. She's just not the person I married and loved anymore." he says, sadly._

_"Please don't leave me here. Don't leave me here with her." I whisper, tears pricking my eyes._

* * *

I sit upright in bed, drenched in sweat. It was never a nightmare but it might as well have been one. It had been almost a year since Lucas had left. I had been having that damn dream every night since then.

"Kyra! Get your butt down here for breakfast or you'll be late for work!" she shouts from downstairs.

I groan and drag myself out of my warm bed. I stop to look at myself in the full length mirror and cringe. Now, I look bad every morning, like everybody else. But ever since Lucas left and I've been having that recurring dream of the day he left, I've looked like death every morning.

Dark circles from lack of sleep, hollow eyes from watching my mother drink herself into oblivion, crazy messed up hair from all the tossing and turning. I had lost weight and my clothes hung a little too loosely on my curvy frame. There were bruises on my arms where my mom had grabbed me too hard while she was hammered. Like I said, death.

I glance at the calendar tacked to the wall beside my mirror. It was June first. Fourteen days until I went back to camp. The days just dragged by now.

I hadn't talked to Nico in two weeks because his father had called him down to the Underworld to help with some "crisis". For all I knew, the so called "crisis" could just be Hades' missing bath robe.  
Mo has been in Peru with his mother and step-father (she married an extremely rich guy earlier this year).

And to top it all off, John will barely speak to me. He thinks that Lucas leaving and mom's drinking problem are all my fault. He was sympathetic towards me at first but as mom's problem got worse, the less he talked to me and the more glares I got when he _did_ come to check up. All the glares say the same thing. They all say, "You didn't understand the after affects of this. You ruined ours lives. We would have been better off with her not remembering us."

But the truth was, I didn't even know the after effects would be _this_ bad. Hell, I didn't even think there would _be_ after effects. So basically, I have no one to talk to about _any_ of this and I'm sinking into my own depression.

I look away from the mirror and start walking towards the door, wondering what's for breakfast. Probably toaster waffles or cereal. That's what it had been ever since I got home from camp this past summer. I came home to a drunkard for a mother and a father that could barely stand to be in the same room as her.

I march down the stairs. My bare feet hit the cold tiles, sending shivers up my spine. I make my way to the kitchen to find everything I needed for cereal. An empty bowl, a spoon, the cereal box, and the milk. I sigh and pour the cereal into the bowl then the milk on top of that. I walk over to the refrigerator and place the milk back in it's spot and take out the orange juice.

I open the cap and sniff it. It had gone bad, as expected. I look at the expiration date and see it expired two weeks ago. I dump it out into the sink and grab a glass of water instead.

Just as I'm sitting down to my sorry excuse for a breakfast, mom stumbles into the kitchen. There's a whisky bottle in one hand and a smoking cigarette in the other. I inwardly sigh and keep my eyes on my cereal. If she was drinking this early in the morning, I was going to have a lot to deal with when I got home from work. Oh how I wish Lucas had taken me with him.

**A/N:**

**Well, how'd you guys like it? Like I said, it's a bit different than the past three stories. A lot more depressing but it gets better! I promise!**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**

**P.S.**

**Did any of you guys hear that My Chemical Romance broke up yesterday? It makes me really sad because I loved that band!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

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Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

Work was torture, as usual. I worked at the Company and Noodles in downtown. I despised working here. I came home everyday smelling like food, there was a ton of drama, and it was low wages. Not my ideal job.

A lady walks up to the register, breaking me out of my thoughts for a moment. I plaster a fake smile on my face and get ready to take her order.

"May I take your order, ma'am?" I ask, chipper.

"Yes. Can I get the penne rosa? With fetta cheese and the chicken." she says, peering at the menu board.

Whenever a costumer asks, "can I have" instead of "may I have", I always want to say, "No you fucking can't! We're fucking out of it!". Of course, I can't do that. I'd get fired if I did that.

"Yes, ma'am." I say, ringing up her order, as well as the bottle of water she had picked up.

She hands me her debit card and I swipe it. I hand it back to her, with her receipt, and she walks away with her number card.

I sigh and rest my head on the counter. I just wanted to leave and never have to walk into this damn restaurant ever again. I was sick of smelling pasta and cheese and also the short-tempered costumers we got sometimes.

"Excuse me." says a familiar voice.

I look up and see Mo. My face breaks into a grin (a real one this time) and I reach over the counter and give him a hug.

"I've missed you so much! You wouldn't believe how bad it is at home." I say.

"You can tell me all about it after you get off work. I'm gonna swing by the studio to see Anne Marie but I'll be back over here when you get off." he says.

"Ok. I'll see you in a bit." I say, brightening at the thought of spending some time with Mo.

* * *

When I walk out the door at eight o'clock, Mo was sitting in one of the patio chairs. He stands up and swings an arm around my shoulder. We start walking towards the dock, where there was a musician playing "Meant to Live" by Switchfoot.

We sit down on a bench and Mo starts telling me about Peru. He said it was wonderful there and he loved every minute of it. Apparently, his step-father, Joshua, owns a house there. I told you, the guy's loaded.

"Enough about Peru. What's going on at home, Ky?" he asks.

I sigh. I was _really_ enjoying hearing about his adventures in Peru.

"She's hammered practically everyday. And when she's not, she's out at bars hooking up with other drunks." I say, gazing at the water.

Mo puts his head in his hands. "Ky, I wish there was something I could do. Has John done anything?" he asks, glancing at me.

"No." I say, bitterly.

"He thinks all this is my fault. He'll barely talk to me now." I say, my voice cracking.

"Ky." Mo says, wrapping me in one of his hugs that pretty much always makes me feel better. Today, it didn't.

"And Nico's been gone for the past two weeks. Hades called him down to the Underworld for some so called "crisis". Lucas hasn't even called." I say, trying to hold back the tears.

Mo has nothing left to say so we just sit there and watch the sun set, turning the water brilliant colors.

* * *

I walked into the house. It was dark and smelled like cigarette smoke and vodka. Not a good sign. I head towards the living room.

I find my mom sprawled on the couch, nearly unconscious. The ashtray on the coffee table is full and there's two empty vodka bottles on the floor. There's a partial bottle in her hand.

I go over and try to take it out of her hand. She becomes ridged and her bloodshot eyes snap open. She turns her head towards me, an ugly sneer on her face.

She throws the bottle at me. I duck just in time. It hits the wall behind me instead and shatters. I look behind me to see glass littering the floor and the wall splashed with the putrid drink. If it hadn't been for my ADHD and training, I would have been knocked out.

I get back on me feet, angry now. I yank my mother off the couch and she groans. I practically drag her out of the living room and down the hall, towards her bedroom.

About half-way there, she regained a bit of her consciousness and started to protest. She started to kick and try to wiggle out of my strong grasp. It didn't work.

I finally got to the door and kicked it open. Eventually, I got her to settle back down and into the bed. Before she closes her eyes she looks at me.

"You are a disgrace. I wish you had never been born." she spits.

Her head lolls to the side and she's knocked out. I know that the words had been the alcohol speaking but they stung all the same.

* * *

I have to hold myself back from slamming the bedroom door. I close it quietly, though I'm guessing not much could wake her up, and head to the kitchen.

I open up the refrigerator and take out a head of lettuce. I grab a knife from the block and begin cutting up a small salad. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast this morning and I was starving.

I nick my finger while cutting and jerk my hand back, dropping the knife onto the rosy colored granite counter. I stare at the scarlet blood running down my pointer finger. I glance at the knife on the counter and pick it up.

Then I do something so unlike me, even the thought of it had never entered my mind. I cut myself. A short and shallow slash on my left forearm. I gasp, hot tears instantly running down my cheeks and blurring my vision.

I watch the blood drip off my arm with fascination. For some reason, the pain was satisfactory. It was like all the hurt I had been living with for the past year was just dripping off my arm and out of me. I almost felt like I deserved it. John had made me feel like I deserved this agony with all the withering glares I got from him.

So, I do it again. And again. The ruby colored liquid splattered on the counter and floor. The tears were so hot, they felt like they were burning trails into my cheeks.

Eventually, I feel a little lightheaded and drop the blood coated knife with a clang to the white tiled floor. I slide down onto the floor and rock back and forth, cradling my cut up and bloodied arm.

**A/N:**

**Longish chapter. Did you guys like it? Did anyone see that coming? This is probably the most depressing chapter I've written so far in this story.**

**If anyone is wondering, I'm updating a little early because I'll be on the road tomorrow. Six hours in the car... I think I just might die! Last time it was only three and I nearly went crazy being in there for that short of a trip. Ugg!**

**So I'm thinking about getting my cartilage pierced and was wondering if any of you guys have had yours done. If so, does it hurt really bad? I asked my friend and she said it hurt really really bad then I asked my cousin and she said it didn't hurt at all..**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**

**P.S.**

**If I'm feeling generous this week, I might just do a surprise update! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

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Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"Kyra?" a voice calls from the hall.

I sniffle and stare down at my arm. It was dark throughout most of the house. The only light I had bothered to turn on was the one in the living room. The sun had gone down long ago and moonlight poured through the kitchen windows. The knife was still on the floor beside me. I was sitting in the same spot I had been sitting for gods know how long.

"Ky?" the voice says, getting closer to the kitchen.

A dark silhouette appears in the kitchen archway and stops. I don't even bother to look up to see who it was. I already knew.

"Kyra." Nico gasps, seeing the blood.

He hurries forward and kneels down, wrapping his arms around me. I bury my face in his chest and cry my heart out. My arm rubs up against my jeans and I pull out of Nico's embrace, screaming and holding my arm tightly, new blood quickly coming to the surface of the cuts.

"Kyra, what did you _do_?" Nico asks, bewildered and wide eyed.

"She called me a disgrace. I couldn't handle it anymore." I say, in between sobs.

He reaches into his back-pack and pulls out a water bottle full of nectar.

"Give me your arm." he says, a little sternly, holding out his hand.

I place my arm in his hand. He takes it gently and opens the bottle, pouring nectar all over it. It stings for a second before sweet relief washes over me. I sigh and lean against the counter as Nico puts the bottle back in his bag.

"I guess she's gotten worse, huh?" he says after a while.

"Yea." I hold out my arms and show him the bruises in the dim moonlight.

"You can go back to camp if you want. Or even come to the Underworld with me. Persephone is still jealous that she didn't get to meet you last summer." he says, a sort of pleading in his dark eyes.

I shake my head. "As much as I want to, I can't. I can't just _leave_ her."

"What about John? Can't he come check up on her?" he tries again.

I snort. "John could care less about me or mom. The attitude he shows about her states that, in his mind, she's already gone. He thinks it's a hopeless cause now that Lucas left." I say, feeling new tears trying to escape.

He takes my hands, gently, and looks at me, studying my face so closely that he was starting to freak me out. I was used to him staring at me. I stared at him too. But he usually didn't look at me like this. Like he was memorizing every crease, every dimple, every eyelash and every dark green speck dotting my irises.

"Nico. What is it?" I ask.

"You know last summer when you tackled me in the woods, trying to stop me from going to the Underworld to find Lucas?" he asks.

"Yea." I say, not knowing where this was going.

"And do you remember me asking you if you knew what it was like to watch someone sink into the depths of depression? How that person can become so broken, you can't fix them?" he says.

"Yes. I remember. Where is this going Nico?" I ask, getting a little impatient.

"It's taken you again. The depression. So, we either find a way to make your mother herself again or you go back to camp or come with me to the Underworld." he says.

I let out a huff and balance my chin in my hand. What would be the best thing to do? Save my mother or save myself?

"If I could have saved her, I would have done it a long time ago." I say, looking down at the bloody knife.

* * *

"Ok. I'll leave." I say.

I don't know how long we had been sitting in the kitchen. It could have been minutes or hours. I had been battling on what to do. Whether I should leave or try and help my mother. I had made my decision.

"What?" Nico asks, looking at me.

"I'll leave. I don't want to stay here anymore." I say.

"Ok. You want to pack some things?" he asks, standing up and holding out a hand for me.

I take his hand and say, "Yea. Come on upstairs with me."

We go down the hall and up the cherry wood stairs. We reach my bedroom and I open the door. It creeks open and I flip the switch. It looked just as it had this morning. My pajamas thrown on the floor and a few pairs of shoes scattered by the walk-in closet.

I walk over to my closet and take out my huge, army style duffle bag. I set it on my bed then walk over to my dresser. I pull out my favorite shirts and jeans first, among other clothes, until I couldn't hold anymore in my arms.

I go back over to the bed and roll my clothes, lining them up neatly in my bag. I repeat the process a few times until the duffle is two thirds of the way full. My dresser was just about empty. All that was left were the old clothes that didn't fit anymore or the clothes I didn't like.

With the remaining space, I had managed to fit a pair of TOMS and my gladiator sandals, my toiletries, all the stuff I needed for my hair, all my makeup, a couple of dresses from my closet, my burgundy aviator jacket, my light brown leather jacket, and some jewelry I couldn't bare to part with. It was extremely hard to zip it but, I got it done.

I turned around and saw my back-pack that Nico had given me for my birthday last summer. I open it up and snatch my wallet out. I peek inside to see twenty bucks and some change. I make sure my charger and ear-buds are in there, as well as my sharpies. I hardly ever leave the house without either one. I make sure I have my dagger then I close up my pack and look around my room, seeing if there was anything else I needed.

My eyes scan over the light green walls and the cherry wood floor. There were so many memories in this room. Good and bad. There was the time when John read me a bedtime story when I was six. Mom and Lucas had been out on a date that night. Then there was the time when I had spent the whole day, locked in my room, crying because my grandmother had passed away. Like I said, good and bad memories.

Nothing caught my eye so I nodded at Nico. He heaved up my heavy duffle and opened the door for me. I grab my dark gray, zip-up hoodie from it's peg and sling my back-pack over my shoulder. I flip the switch and go down the stairs.

Before we leave, I go and grab all the cash from the family money jar (though recently it had become my mother's alcohol and cigarette money stash) in the kitchen and raid my mother's wallet. I came up with about three hundred bucks.

I glance at the half-chopped head of lettuce on the counter and the ruby red drops of blood on the floor and the bloody knife. I decide to leave it.

I walk to the foyer where Nico was waiting and open the front door. Nico walks out and I turn the lock on the door. I close it behind me and don't look back.

**A/N:**

**Well, here's your surprise update guys! What do you think about Kyra running away? Where do you think Nico will take her? What do you think John and Michelle's reaction will be when they find her gone? All will be answered soon...**

**I swear, all this traveling back and forth is killing me... Not literally but y'know what I mean. Before we got to our hotel last night, I saw two hobos sitting under one of those covered bus stops and they must have been best buddies 'cause they were fist bumping! I almost started laughing like crazy because my best friend has this ongoing obsession with hobos for some reason and it made me think of her.**

**Till Saturday,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"Where do you want to go?" Nico asks.

We had reached the small park in my neighborhood. It was probably around midnight and the street lamps had flickered on. The playground was deserted. There was a slight wind that made the swings move and creak a little. I shiver, ready to leave. This place was creeping me out.

"Not camp. Not tonight. Let's just go to the Underworld." I say, looking down at my feet.

"You sure?" Nico asks, taking my chin in his hand and making me look up at him.

I nod. I wasn't really all that excited to visit the Underworld again but anything was better than here. Anything was better than having to drag your drunken mother to bed after having a vodka bottle thrown at you.

"Let's go then." he says, taking my hand.

We plunge into a shadow, like so many other times, and into the cold darkness.

* * *

We arrived in Central Park, by the secret entrance to the Underworld. Nico didn't even tell me to sing. I just walk right up to the familiar boulder and do it.

_"'These are the eyes and the lies of the taken_  
_These are their hearts but their hearts don't beat like ours_  
_They burn, 'cause they are all afraid, for everyone of us_  
_There's an army of them, but you'll never fight alone_  
_'Cause I wanted you to know_

_That the world is ugly,_  
_But you're beautiful to me_  
_Well are you thinking of me, now?'"_

The boulder rumbles then splits open. I step inside, Nico right behind me. The rock closes up and Nico snaps his fingers, igniting the torches mounted on the walls with green flames. I look down into the darkness of the tunnel and sigh. Down into the darkness we go.

* * *

By the time we had reached the winding path to Hades' place, Nico was practically carrying me. I had already been pretty tired when I had gotten home earlier. Having to drag my mom to bed, the blood loss from cutting myself, all the crying, then packing all my things, had pretty much drained me of the rest of my strength. Add going down hundreds of stairs to that and I'm practically a living zombie.

"Almost there, Ky." Nico says, as we climb up the path.

We reach the gruesome wrought iron gates with their terrible pictures. They swing open at Nico's touch. We walk through Persephone's garden and toward the doors. I try my hardest to ignore the fragrant scents of the apples and pomegranates.

Nico pushes open the giant doors and we step across the threshold. It looked exactly as it had last summer when I was here. Black and gold everything. We go down the dark hallway and to Nico's room at the end of the hall. I wasn't even glowing because I was so tired.

I open the door and toss my back-pack and duffle bag on the floor. I don't even kick off my high-tops before I collapse on the bed in a heap, already asleep.

**A/N:**

**Sort of a short chapter. Nothing really happened so it's one of those space-filler chapters.. I really hate those kind of chapters. BTW, that piece of a song that Kyra sang was "The World is Ugly" by My Chemical Romance, if anyone wanted to know.**

**How's everyone's week been? Guess what! I WASN'T FREAKIN' INSULTED ON THURSDAY BY THOSE TWO BROTHERS! I was sooooooooo happy! But, sadly, my friend has gone to her hometown for Easter weekend and won't be there with me tomorrow or today or whatever you want to say... So, hopefully, they'll be nice and I won't have to threaten them... Idk.**

**The most mortifying thing happened yesterday afternoon (and by yesterday, I mean Friday). My mom works at the McCalister's Deli we have in town and there's this SUPER HOT guy who works in the back. OMFG he's so beautiful I could just stare at him . .**

**Anyway, my mom walked up to him yesterday while she was taking some dishes to the sink and said that she needed to take a picture of him for me. ME! Of course he asks why and she tells him that he was my muse (or image or whatever you want to say) whilst writing about Nico.. This is not true because the hot guy in my neighborhood (among other guys, famous and not famous) are my muse for writing about Nico.**

**THEN, to make it fifty thousand times worse, she talked to his freakin' mom about me and that whole ordeal! BTW, this guy is like in his twenties and his parents work at McCalister's as well. Well, his mom asked my mom how old I was and my mom told her I wouldn't be 15 till July and his mom was just like "oh ok" but THEN she said that she also had a 16 year old. Now I'm curious if this guy's younger brother is just as adorable as himself...**

**My mother was telling me what she had done IN FRONT of my dad! Now, my dad and I are pretty awkward when we're alone (like many other teenage girls with their dads) and it just makes matters worse when my mom starts talking about my non-existent, imaginary, love life with guys that I like to day dream about. Ugg! Can I just die now?**

**XOXO,**

Mrs-diAngelo25


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

_"I just want you to know, I'm not doing this to hurt you. I would never hurt you. She's just not the person I married and loved anymore." he says, sadly._

_"Please don't leave me here. Don't leave me here with her." I whisper, tears pricking my eyes._

_"Ky. Ky, wake up." he says._

_I look at him, confused._

_He walks over and starts shaking me by the shoulders._

* * *

I sit up with a start, smacking my head against something hard. I moan and clutch my forehead, squinting my eyes open.

I stare across from me to see Nico doing pretty much the same thing.

"Good morning." Nico grumbles, rubbing his forehead.

"Sorry." I say, shrugging.

"Ready for breakfast?" he asks, getting off the bed.

"Um, I can't eat the food here, remember?" I ask.

"It's okay. As soon as Persephone heard you were here, she made sure that all the food was regular mortal food." he says, grinning.

"Well, let me change and I'll be ready." I say, looking down at my rumpled clothes from yesterday.

"Take all the time you need." he says, leaning back into a chair.

* * *

As we walk down the hallway, a thought crashes into my mind. I turn to Nico and ask, "Why is Persephone here? Shouldn't she be with Demeter?"

"You know that crisis my dad called me down here for?" Nico asks.

"Yea." I say.

"Well, apparently Persephone misplaced her crown but she had thought it had been stolen. So she was practically tearing up the Underworld when I got here to help look for it." he says, rolling his eyes.

"Did you find it?" I ask.

"Yea. She had been gardening before she left for the summer and had taken it off and hung it on a pomegranate tree branch." he says.

"So, if you found it, why is she still here?" I ask.

We had reached the foyer and didn't have much more time to talk about the subject.

"When she heard you were here, she insisted on staying a few more days." he says, grinning.

"Joy." I say, the one word packed with sarcasm.

* * *

"Kyra! Oh, it's so nice to meet you!" Persephone says, wrapping me in a suffocating hug.

I awkwardly hug her back. This was not something I had expected. I had expected a stuck up goddess who thought she could do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. Especially after what Nico told me of her freak-out about her crown. Not a nice hug-giver who greeted me with a ton of warmth.

She was dressed like any other mortal, a frilly white blouse and dark skinny jeans. But she definitely didn't _look_ like your average mortal. Her skin was tanned to perfection and her eyes were a warm brown. She had one of those cute button noses and prominent cheek bones. Supermodels would be jealous of her lips. They were full and pink. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders in perfect chocolaty ringlets.

Nico and I had just walked into the dining room. The walls were painted a shimmery yellow color, not quite dark enough to be gold but not quite light enough to be yellow. The floor looked like it was made of gray shale.

"It's good to see you again, Kyra." Hades says, sitting at the head of the table.

"As to you, Lord Hades." I say, smiling.

"Sit, please." Persephone says, gesturing to the chairs.

Nico and I sit down next to each other and Persephone takes the other head of the table, across from Hades.

"So what brings you here?" Persephone asks.

I glance at Nico and Hades and see both of them were staring daggers at Persephone. I guess Nico had talked to his dad about why we had showed up here at about two o'clock this morning.

"I couldn't stand being with my mother any longer." I say, shrugging my shoulders.

"What did your mother do?" she asks, a spark of interest in her brown eyes.

"She became a drunkard." I say, a bitter taste welling in my mouth.

"I see." she says, looking at me carefully.

"Ahem." Hades says, turning everyone's attention towards him.

"Shall we eat?" he asks.

He claps his hands and three skeletal servants come from the kitchen carrying giant, covered, silver platters. They set them down onto the table and lift the lids.

My mouth starts watering at what I see. On the first platter was a ginormous mound of bacon, the second, stacks upon stacks of perfectly light brown pancakes, and the third, a fruit salad with strawberries, blueberries, oranges, bananas, and all the other kinds fruit you can imagine.

Nico's the first to plunge into the food. He forks five pancakes, ten pieces on bacon, and three heaping spoonfuls of fruit onto his plate. We all ogle at him as he commences to shovel the food into his mouth, most of it dripping in maple syrup.

"What?" he asks, with a full mouth, looking at us innocently.

Hades shakes his head but I catch a small smile flicker across his lips. I take two pancakes, a few pieces of bacon, and a spoonful of fruit onto my plate. I pick up the maple syrup and drench my pancakes in the sticky, amber colored, liquid.

As I'm returning the syrup back to it's place, I happen to glance down at my left arm. There were several, angry red, lines covering the inside of my arm.

I nearly drop the syrup. I sit back down in my chair, stiffly, and look at my plate, my appetite suddenly gone. I regret putting those ugly marks on my arms. I regretted it so much that it hurt to even _think_ about them.

I try to push it aside, picking up my fork and stabbing a strawberry. I wasn't going to let this get to me. It had been a one-time thing and I had only done it because I had been on the brink of insanity at that particular moment. This wasn't going to be a problem and I was going to get through it.

**A/N:**

**I was felling generous and decided to give you guys another chapter! Kyra is one tough cookie, don't ya think? What did you guys think about Persephone? I need to read the series again because the unforgivable is happening... I'm forgetting bits and pieces of the books! Not good!**

**So you guys know all about those two brothers that take pottery classes with me? Well, they were really nice today, no insults whatsoever! And you wouldn't believe what happened! The older one, he likes PJ too! I was practically freaking out. What's weird though, Mo is molded after this guy! And I had made up Mo's character before I'd even met him. They're really similar... It's weird.**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**

**P.S.**

**Thanks for the reviews! They make me soooooo happy! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"That was delicious! Thank you." I say, scooting back from the table.

"It was a pleasure, Kyra." Persephone says, with a smile.

It was only the three of us. Hades had been called away, much like last time, to a meeting of sorts concerning Underworld business.

"So how long are you staying?" she asks.

"I'm not sure. We might just head to camp a little early. I wouldn't want to burden you." I say.

"Oh, it's no burden at all! Do you know how _boring_ it gets down here? The only girls are the maid servants and they don't even _talk_." Persephone pouts.

"Yea. I kinda ran into that last summer." I say, remembering when I screamed bloody murder because the skeletal French maid had woken me up in Nico's bedroom last summer.

"As much as I hate to break this conversation up," Nico says, "We should figure out where exactly we're going or staying."

"Okaaayy." I sigh, dramatically.

"I must get going as well. I have some things I need to take up to Mother. That's the only reason I'm here right now." Persephone says.

I hear Nico say something under his breath but I don't understand it.

"It was nice meeting you, Lady Persephone." I say.

"Oh, no need to call me lady. Persephone works just as well. Being called lady just makes me feel old." she says, grinning.

Nico starts to open his mouth to make a smart-alack comment, but elbow him hard in the ribs. It would do us no good for him to be a dandelion today.

"See you two later!" she says, wiggling her fingers and walking out of the dining room.

When she's gone, or at least out of earshot, Nico says, "Do you know how tempting that was?"

I shake my head and roll my eyes, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.

"What did you say? When she said she was down here to get some things for Demeter?" I ask.

"Things for Demeter my ass." Nico says, smirking.

"Come on. Let's go figure out our plans." I say, grabbing his hand and dragging him away from the bacon.

**A/N:**

**Short and a little silly. Last night I was nearly having a panic attack. I had changed my password Sunday night and had completely forgotten that I had changed it until I tried to unlock my computer last night and ended up entering the wrong password. I was freaking out, because EVERYTHING is on my computer, all my fics and stuff, and to make the situation worse, it was Monday night and I was going to get everything ready to post today's chapter.**

**I finally remembered it at about 11:30 and I was in the middle of singing along to a song by Lit. Go figure. Anyway, I opened up my computer and entered it in and viola, it unlocked. I felt like such a fucking idiot. I made it the most simple thing to remeber... Well, simple to remember in my mind. But, all is well now and here's your chapter!**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

As we walked down the hall, it gradually got darker. The darker it got, the brighter I was glowing. I still wasn't quite used to that, even though it had been almost a year.

We reach the end of the hall and Nico opens the door. The room was spotless, looking as if no one had slept in the bed or that anyone had been here at all. My duffle and back-pack were stacked neatly by the bathroom door. I guess the maid had been here.

"We can leave tomorrow if you want. Persephone is about to leave again to be with Demeter for the summer and I'm pretty sure you don't want to spend the next week and a half with Hades." he says, pacing.

"I'm getting the vibe you want to leave tomorrow." I say, smirking at Nico.

"I just-the Underworld just doesn't feel like home. You know if you're at a stranger's house and you feel like if you so much as breathe you're going to get scolded?" he asks, stopping to look at me.

"Yea." I replied.

"That's how I feel here. I don't feel welcome." he says.

"Nico." I sigh, "This is your _dad_ we're talking about. I'm sure he doesn't mind you staying here."

"How do you think you'd feel if you had to stay at Apollo's house?" he questions.

"Uncomfortable." I say, shrugging.

"Because I barely know him." I add, seeing his smug expression.

"Exactly." Nico says, looking pleased with himself.

"No. Not exactly. I've only met Apollo _twice_. _You_ have seen your father a lot more than that and even stayed here." I say, gesturing around the room.

Nico sighs and plops down on the bed. "Okay. You got me. Do you want to stay here?" he asks, sounding defeated.

"Hell no! As much as I love you, this place gives me the creeps." I say.

I see him smile and he says, "Okay, where do you want to go then? We can go anywhere. Anywhere in the world."

"New York. I want to see if that's where Lucas is." I blurt out.

I cover my mouth, realizing what I had just said. If Lucas hadn't called in months, what made me think he wanted to be found by me?

"But Ky-" he starts, but a buzzing sound cuts him off.

We freeze and then I realize what it was. It was my phone ringing. I walk over to my back-pack and take it out. It was John. I stare at the screen, debating on whether I should answer or not. Nico gets up and looks over my shoulder.

"Answer it Ky." he says.

I sigh and press the "receive" button on the screen.

"Hello?" I answer, sounding irritated.

"Kyra! Thank the gods you're okay! Mom called me this morning and kept going on and on about a salad drenched in blood. I thought she was drunk so I went over there and saw she wasn't lying. Then I went up to your room to find you and most of your clothes gone. Kyra, what happened?" he asks.

I had had trouble following him while he was talking because he had been talking so fast. Almost as if he couldn't get the words out quick enough.

What shocked me was that he actually sounded concerned about me. I hadn't gotten so much as a smile for almost a year from him and now he's all worked up and worried about me.

I stay silent for a second, holding my breath, then the whole ordeal burst from my lips. He hadn't been to the house to see us in about a month so he had no idea how bad it had gotten. When I ended it with collapsing on Nico's bed last night, I heard a long sigh on the other end.

"I-I had no idea. I'm so sorry I've been angry. I just-I had to find someone to blame for everything that happened and it happened to be you." he says.

"Is there any way you can forgive me?" he asks, a pleading tone in his voice.

"I-maybe." I say, uncertain.

"Will you come back home? Please?" he asks, hope filling his voice.

"No." I say, a bit sharply.

The line is silent.

"I'm sorry. I just can't go back. Mom will want me to live with her and I just can't. I can't stand on the sidelines and just watch her go away. I can't" I say.

"Well, where are you going to go?" he asks.

"Home." I say, then hang up, not waiting for a reply.

**A/N:**

**Surprise update! Don't you just love those? The reason for the surprise update is because I'm at work with my mom and I'm bored out of my mind. Pretty much nothing to do so I thought, ****_'Hey! Why don't I post another chapter?' _****And there you go.**

**Aren't you guys glad John finally came to his senses and stopped being a total jerkface? And while Nico was talking about being in a complete stranger's house, that's pretty much exactly how I feel. Not being able to breathe because it feels like I'll get scolded if I do. How do you guys feel when you're in a stranger's house?**

**Bored out of my mind,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"But I thought you said you wanted to find Lucas?" Nico inquires.

I sigh. "I don't know why I said that. If he hasn't called in months, maybe he doesn't want anything to do with me." I say, flopping onto the bed.

"Well, where is home?" Nico asks, laying down next to me and wrapping his arms around me.

I turn to face him. "Do you _really_ have to ask that question?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Right. Camp." he says.

"Exactly." I say, closing my eyes and burying my face in his chest.

"When do you want to leave? We can go now or wait till tomorrow." he says.

I think for a second then say, "Let's go now."

"Okay then." he says, sitting up and off the bed.

"Let me grab some stuff then I'll be ready." he says.

"Okay." I say, grabbing my bags.

He comes out of the bathroom with some toiletries. He opens his back-pack and puts them inside then goes over to his dresser and stuffs some clothes in there as well.

He zips it shut and turns to me.

"Ready?" he asks.

"Yea." I say, slinging my pack over one shoulder and the duffle bag over the other.

Nico walks over to the door and opens it, letting me go out first. He flips the switch and closes the door. We start walking down the hall, my glowing body lighting the way like a torch.

* * *

As we passed the Fields of Asphodel and came closer to the tunnel entrance, I noticed something. The entrance to the tunnel was blocked off by a huge stalactite. I stopped and tugged on the sleeve of Nico's aviator jacket.

He looked ahead and his face clouded over. He started walking at a fast pace towards the blocked off tunnel. I had trouble keeping up with his long strides.

When I caught up with him, slightly winded, I found him yelling at a skeletal construction worker. Nico had dropped his back-pack and was motioning angrily to the worker and then to the giant rock blocking our way.

"Nico." I say, putting a hand on his arm.

He stopped mid-sentence and looked over at me.

"What?" he asks.

"Surely there's a better way of going about this than yelling at a construction worker." I say.

Nico sighs, obviously trying to get his anger under control. He opens his eyes and looks at the worker. He opens his mouth to speak when I hear something behind me.

I turn around to find Hades, in his crisp suit and his arms crossed.

"Leaving so soon?" he asks.

"Yes, sir. Kyra decided that she needed to get to camp." Nico says.

I glare at him. Of _course_ he pins why we're leaving early on me. Wasn't he the one that wanted to leave… Not that I _wanted_ to stay here, but still.

"I see. Well, you're going to have to take the other way out. It appears these, ahem, bone-heads can't do anything right." Hades says, smiling a little at his pun.

"Is Charon going to be there?" Nico asks.

"Of course." Hades says, like this should be the most obvious thing on the planet.

Nico groans and closes his eyes, putting a hand to his forehead, looking like he had suddenly gotten a really bad headache.

He looks over at me and sighs. "Ready then?" he asks.

"Yea. What other way is there? I thought this was the only one." I say.

"No. This is the smaller entrance. You'll see where we're going." he says, conflicting emotions crossing his face.

**A/N:**

**A bit of a short chapter, I know. But chapter 9 is longer. I think you guys are gonna love 9! I'm updating a teensy bit early because tomorrow I have so much to do. I have to help my pottery teacher clean the studio tomorrow morning, then after that I'm going to go with my friend to help her pick out a new bed, ****_then_**** I'm going to go to work with my mom when she goes in at 5 and my dad is going to pick me up when he gets off at 6. Like I said, extremely busy day tomorrow, like every Saturday. ****_But,_**** if I ****_do_**** manage to have time and don't collapse from exhaustion first, I'll post chapter 9!**

**So I'm going to start writing a multi-chapter Thalico songfic in a few days. I'm pretty excited about it! I already have 14 of the songs picked out and most of the plot planned out, I just need to write it all down. Every song will be one chapter so they will probably be short chapters. Most of the songs are Green Day and My Chemical Romance (my two absolute favorite bands on the planet) but Stelle123 suggested that I look into some Three Days Grace songs as well.**

**Love you guys!**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

We had been walking along the shore of the Styx for about thirty minutes when we came to a wooden barge. Nico stops walking and jumps aboard the boat, causing it to rock back and forth a bit. He sets his pack down then takes my bags and puts them next to his.

He offers me a hand and I start to take it when I hear an ear-shattering howl. I clamp my hands over my ears, trying to block out the horrible sound. I glance up and see Nico's face had paled. He was looking behind me with an expression of mixed horror and fury.

I bring my hands away from my ears and turn around slowly. Standing a little less than twenty feet away was a beast so horrible and disgustingly wrong, I had trouble keeping my breakfast down.

The thing was a humanoid. A man from the waist up and had a spider's body from the waist down. Eight black spiky legs, looking as if they could easily stab through someone if they so much as nudged them. That wasn't the freaky part though. The freaky part was that it had three heads. _Three_.

Just as I reach up to touch the pendant around my neck, it rushes forward. It was five feet away from me just as my bow materialized in my hands.

It was ten times more ugly up close as it was far away. It had what I'd classify as tusks protruding from each of it's mouths. There was a white foamy substance dripping out the corners of the three mouths as well. It's eyes were pitch black, it had no hair, and it was around eight feet tall.

I had never heard about a creature of this sort in my Greek mythology class in school or from the stories told at camp. Well, unless you count Arachne but she didn't have three heads.

"Well, what do we have here?" the thing asks, looking at me hungrily.

"What are you doing here, Cacus?" Nico questions, his Stygian Iron sword drawn.

"I'm hungry. What do you expect of me when living bodies cross onto my territory?" Cacus asks.

"This is _not_ your territory. _You_ are supposed to be overseeing the fires in Punishment." Nico says, a dangerous edge to his voice.

"What can I say, I'm a sucker for fresh meat." Cacus says, grinning to reveal his ugly teeth.

I draw back my string, ready to release my arrow. I had no idea what kind of arrow it was but I didn't care. As long as it got this _thing_ away from me.

Just as it sweeps forward, I release the arrow and it goes flying into Cacus' chest. He screeches and stumbles back, jerking the arrow out with a sickening sucking sound. He throws it aside and grins up at me.

"Did you really think I would be that easy to kill?" he asks.

Nico steps in front of me and I can't help but roll my eyes. He knows good and well that I am more than capable of defending myself. I step out from behind him and aim another arrow.

"You can back away now." I say, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice.

I hated regular sized spiders. This was pushing it.

Cacus throws his three bald heads back and laughs. I glance over at Nico and I see him nod his head ever so slightly. I take my que and rush forward, dropping my bow and yanking my dagger out of it's sheathe around my thigh.

I run behind Cacus and tackle him. He stumbles forward a little, obviously surprised. I try to ignore the prickling hairs of the spider legs as I wrap my arms around his three necks.

It probably looked like I was bull-riding a spider humanoid. If not, it sure as hell _felt_ like it. Cacus was jerking around crazily, trying to knock me off. He underestimated just how strong my grip was.

Every once and a while I'd see a bright black stream erupt from Cacus' mouths. The streams singed the hair off my arms. Great. Not only was he a giant spider, he could also breath fire. Just _great_.

Nico was doing his best dodging Cacus' legs and the fire. At one point I'd see him in one spot and in two seconds he'd be in a completely different place.

After about fifteen minutes of hanging on for dear life, I manage to stab my dagger into Cacus' back. I rip down and black blood sprays from his back. The blood splatters all over me and it feels like it's burning it's way through my skin.

I scream and loose my grip on Cacus' back and tumble eight feet to the ground. I land sharply on my back. I hear one last ear-splitting roar and then there's complete silence.

I sit up and look down at my body and see that I'm covered in black blood. My shirt and jeans have holes burned in them and my arms look severely burned. The acidic blood had opened up the cuts on my arms again and warm scarlet drops of blood were dripping onto my legs. My face felt like it had been attacked by a million bees. I touch the burns on my arms tentatively and jerk back, screaming.

"Hang on Kyra. Let me get some nectar. " I hear Nico say.

He comes over within seconds with two bottles. One had nectar the other is full of water. He takes my arms and begins to pour the water over them. I wrench my arms away from the water. It stung like crazy.

"Kyra." he says, his voice gentle.

I reluctantly hold out my arms and he starts again. I bite my lip so hard I taste the metallic tang of blood. It hurt so bad to have the water running over the burns and open cuts. I was regretting putting them there more and more.

Eventually, he stops pouring the water over my arms and he sets the bottle down. He rips a strip of his shirt off and dampens it with the water. He reaches forward and dabs at my face.

Now _that_ hurt even worse than my arms. My face must have taken most of the blood that had poured out of Cacus' back. I force down the urge to throw-up from the pain and dig my fingers into black sand beneath me.

He finally stops then hands me the nectar bottle. I take it, gratefully, and pop the cap off. I drink it as fast as I can without causing myself to burst into flames.

I close the bottle when I feel my cheeks start to burn. I hand the bottle back to Nico and he takes it. He stands up and offers me a hand.

We stagger over to the boat and step on. Nico goes and tugs on a small rope connected to a bell. The bell makes a slight ringing sound then stops. I had no idea what that was supposed to do and I was about to ask when a man materialized in front of us. I was so startled I nearly fell into the Styx.

He was wearing a long, hooded, black robe. It almost looked as if it were made out of black mist and it was clinging to him. Emerging from the sleeves of the robe were two bony hands.

"Sir Nico. I presume you would like to leave?" says the man in a gravelly British accent.

"Yes, Charon." Nico says.

"You know it's going to cost you." Charon says, holding out one of his bony hands.

Nico sighs impatiently and digs into his pocket. He pulls out five golden drachma and drops them into Charon's open palm. He closes his fingers around the coins and then turns toward the front of the boat.

He starts paddling us down the Styx. Soon enough, the swaying of the boat stops and I realize we're in an elevator. Charon's robe had been replaced with a cream colored Italian suit and he was wearing tortoise shell glasses. There's a ding and the doors open. Out we go.

**A/N:**

**I didn't collapse from exhaustion! Whoo-hoo! I'm pretty close to it though. A house is being built right across the street from me and they started working on it again at like 7 this morning. I had stayed up till about 1:30 last night. I was not happy. For some reason, my best writing ideas only come to me at like 10 at night on Fridays and I'm usually up really late working on them. Ugg.**

**What did you guys think of that little battle scene with Cacus? The website I use for finding monsters says that he's the grand-daughter (go figure) of Medusa and that he can breathe fire so I thought, ****_'Why not make it that the fire he breathes is actually coughed up blood ignited? That would be so cool! And gross..'. _****So, basically, the blood is already really acidic and igniting it just makes it ten times worse to that's why it burned Kyra when it splashed all over her. It also says that he lived on the Avetine plain. Apparently that's where corpses were burned. And Hercules' tenth task was to strangle him. He did it because, well, he's Hercules and Hercules does ****_everything_****.**

**Reviews are nice, as usual.**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

We came out into a large waiting room. The floors were a black and gray terrazzo tile and the walls were painted an amberish orange color. There were leather chairs lining the walls and a few coffee tables with gossip magazines on them.

The room was full of people. Well, not really _people_. Not anymore, at least. These were obviously spirits because they were transparent. Some were reading the magazines, some were smoking cigarettes, and others were just carrying on whole conversations with themselves. Nothing weird about that, right?

Nico and I walk out of the elevator and Charon follows. He goes to stand behind a podium which looked to be made of walnut wood. Lettered on the wall behind Charon was "DOA Recording Studios". I guess that was the cover for the entrance to the Underworld.

"See ya later, Charon." Nico says, walking towards the clear glass doors.

"Thanks for taking care of Cacus, by the way." Charon says.

"What do you mean?" Nico pauses, turning around to face Charon.

"He's been guarding the dock for a couple of months now. I have no idea what he wants but he was scaring away the spirits. I haven't gotten a tip in months because of him." he grumbles.

"Hmm." Nico says, turning away again and pushing through the doors.

I take one last look around the waiting room then follow him out into the summer hotness of Los Angeles, California.

* * *

"I just don't understand why Cacus would be guarding that entrance to the Underworld." Nico says, kicking at a pebble.

We were heading into the city, trying to find a shadow. Although, it was broad daylight, I was pretty sure we were going to have to wait a while before we got even a_hint_ of a shadow. Nico had been asking that question ever since we left DOA.

"I don't know." I say, not for the first time.

He groans in frustration, dropping his bag and smacking his head against the side of a building.

"Nico, why don't we go somewhere and grab a bite to eat. We've been out here for at least an hour looking." I say, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"That sounds terrific. Only one problem. We don't have any money." he says, his forehead still against the wall.

"Uh-uh." I say, smiling and pulling out the wad of cash I had taken before leaving the house last night.

"Oh." he says, surprised.

"Come on. Lunch is on me." I say, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the nearest restaurant.

* * *

The nearest restaurant had happened to be a Chick Fil A. Which was fine with me and seemed to be okay with Nico. I had gotten the grilled chicken sandwich, no pickles, and Nico had gotten the twelve piece nugget meal and a sandwich as well. I guess a guy has to eat.

He had just finished off his nuggets and was working on inhaling his sandwich. I just watched in amazement as the sandwich disappeared within two minutes. He grabbed his drink and started sucking it down. Meanwhile, I'm still staring at him in wonder. He catches me staring and swallows.

"What?" he asks.

"I've never seen anyone eat that much in such a small amount of time." I say, eyes wide.

He had picked up his drink again and had been about to swallow when I had said that. He started choking and trying not to spew the drink all over me.

I start laughing as well and soon everyone in Chick Fil A was looking at us. They were probably wondering what the hell was wrong with us. I myself had begun to wonder.

* * *

"Come on, Nico. Let's go before they kick us out." I say, trying to subside my giggles.

"Okay, okay." he says, rolling his eyes and tossing the remains of our lunch in the garbage can.

He takes his back-pack from me and opens the door. I slide past him and back outside into the heat.

**A/N:**

**Shortish chapter I guess. Why do you guys think Cacus had been guarding the dock? Do you think it had something to do with Callie or it was just him hoping to catch a snack?**

**I can't remember what exactly DOA looked like in the book, so I just sorta made it up. Who knows, maybe Hades likes to change it up a little every few hundred years.**

**If any of you guys are wondering, the multi-chapter Thalico songfic is going to take a while. I have some family stuff going on right now in my life and the story is ****_really_**** depressing so I'm having to take my time with it. I started writing it the other day and was pretty much instantly in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Y'know. Those moods where you feel like ****_'What does it matter to go on living.' _****and ****_'I hate my life.'_**** Yea. Pretty much that. So I had to stop writing it and work on something else for a while to get back in my happy place.**

**I hope you guys had a good weekend and an okay Monday and Tuesday!**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"So where would the best place be to find a shadow?" I ask.

"Dark alley?" he asks.

"Let's use that as a last resort. How about a store's supply closet?" I suggest.

"Sounds good." he says, nodding in approval.

* * *

Instead of a supply closet, we found an abandoned pawn shop. Now, usually that wouldn't be a wise decision but everywhere else we looked was either deserted (the owners would notice two teenagers sneaking off into a supply closet and never coming out), or a really sketchy part of town. So this was the second best option.

Nico looks around to make sure no one is watching then kicks at the rotted boards on the door. They give easily and soon we're inside.

Sunlight was peeking through the gaps in the boarded up windows. There were dusty china cases, some of the glass panels smashed. Long counters were covered in grime. It looked as it no one had been inside in years.

"Shadow, shadow, shadow." he mumbles, looking around.

"Over there." I say, pointing to a dark corner where there wasn't any loose rays of sunlight.

"Perfect." he says.

Just as he takes my hand, I hear a slithering sound. Sort of like a snake. I inwardly groan. I had really just hoped we could shadow travel back to camp, no monsters or anything, but obviously the fates just hated me and wanted to make every single day of my life a living hell.

I drop my bags and toss them in a dusty corner. I touch the familiar sun pendant threaded onto my camp necklace and I have my bow in my hands and my quiver slung behind my back. I notch an arrow and look around, trying to find where the sound was coming from.

"Kyra!" Nico yells, pointing with his sword behind me.

I whip around to find a very large snake slithering towards me. And when I say "large", I mean like twenty feet long and about as wide as an old tree's trunk. So, ginormous for a snake. Definitely not your average, run of the mill, snake.

It starts to rear back, ready to strike out at me. I immediately fire and arrow. It hits the middle of it's body but merely bounces off. Almost as if the arrow was made of flimsy rubber.

I dodge the snake's attempts at trying to bite me, all the while firing arrows like mad. Nico tried stabbing the snake with his sword but it seemed defective, same as my arrows, against the snake.

After countless arrows had been fired, I was about ready to give up and just let the snake kill me. I look frantically to Nico and he seemed about at a loss as I was. Then, a thought occurred to me.

Jumping aside, for what felt like the millionth time, I make my way over to Nico.

"What if it's like the Nemean Lion? We can't injure it by cutting away at it's skin. We have to strangle him or something." I say.

"Percy helped kill the Nemean Lion. He threw freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches down it's throat and it choked to death." he says, a completely serious face staring daggers at the snake.

I stare at him, not sure what to think about that story. Never, in my entire time at camp, had I heard of Percy killing the Nemean Lion. And certainly not with freeze-dried food.

I shake my head and reply, "Well, we're a little short on those. Any other ideas?" I ask, jumping aside as the snake strikes again.

"How about you distract it and I sneak up behind it and strangle it." he says.

"Sounds as good as anything else." I say, shrugging.

"Go." he says, darting to the side and around the snake.

I start firing my arrows again, not that it would do anything besides annoy the snake. I jump over it, dropping my bow in the process, as it strikes out, it's teeth smashing into the cracked, checker board floor.

I painfully land face-down on the floor, managing to inhale a ton of dust at the same time. I glance up to see Nico about to pounce on the snake's back. I watch, paralyzed with fear that the snake will turn around and see Nico.

He makes his move and drops his sword, jumping on top of the thing. It hisses so loudly it feels like my eardrums might burst. I clamp my hands over my ears, watching wide-eyed as Nico commences to wrap his arms around the snake's gargantuan neck and begin to squeeze.

The snake slithers and rolls all over the place, trying to shake Nico off but his grip just tightens around the beast's neck. It starts to slow down, obviously beginning to loose consciousness.

Soon, the snake had stopped moving altogether. Nico sits there for a minute, his arms still wrapped around the snake's neck. It starts to crumble away to yellow dust. All that was left was the snake's skull.

Nico gets up and kicks at the dust, scattering it all over the floor. He bends down and picks up the skull, examining the teeth. I get up, over my initial panic, and walk over to him.

I look at the teeth on the skull and feel my skin prickle. The fangs were at least five inches long, the rest of the teeth little needle-like things. The fangs looked wet and I peered closer at them. There was a sort of acid green liquid covering them.

"Poison." Nico says, spitting blood out of his mouth.

"I guess it's a good thing it didn't bite either of us." I say.

"Yea. It would have killed you in seconds. Nectar wouldn't have healed it fast enough." he says.

"Come on. Let's go home." I say, tugging at his arm.

I grab my bags and sling them over my shoulders, once again. Nico takes an empty ambrosia bag out of his back-pack and puts the snake skull inside. He zips the pack shut then comes over to me.

He takes my hand and we start running. Soon, I'm engulfed in the bone-chilling coldness that accompanies shadow traveling. It's hard to explain but, the first time I shadow traveled, I despised it. I didn't like it because it was so foreign to me. Now, it feels like part of my home. Average, everyday life.

**A/N:**

**I'm in a pretty good mood today so I decided to do a surprise update! There hasn't been a giant snake in the stories for a while so I decided to put one in there. I don't think there's actually a Greek monster like this one so I decided to make it up.**

**It feels so incredibly good outside today where I am. Spring/early summer finally decided to show up. I laid out and tanned for about an hour. I think I fell asleep actually... Lol! I hope everyone had an excellent day and I'll talk to you guys on Saturday!**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by our wonderfully talented Rick Riodan.

* * *

We ended up in the woods opposite Half-Blood Hill. Nico looked pretty exhausted. I couldn't blame him though. He had just strangled a ginormous snake and then shadow traveled us, and all my luggage, all the way across the country.

We cross the deserted country road and start heading up the hill. I could see the giant pine tree, the golden fleece sparkling in the late afternoon sunlight, and instantly started feeling better. We crossed the boarder and then we were home.

I breathed in the air tainted with a mixture of sea salt, sun-ripened strawberries, pine needles, and the unusual, but familiar, musty scent of monsters. The Big House looked exactly as it had last year, maybe a new coat of white paint on the shutters.

Nico and I started walking down the hill and toward the cabins. I just wanted to take a shower and collapse into bed. I could already feel soreness creeping into my joints and muscles. We walked to cabin seven and heard the chaos before we saw it.

"Give it back!" I hear Danielle scream.

"I told you! I didn't take it!" Scarlett shouts back.

"Liar!" Danielle yells.

"What the hell is going on here?!" I shout, slamming the door open, trying to be heard over the shouting match going on.

It quiets down instantly and their heads snap towards the flung open door. Danielle had gotten her cherry red hair cut short since last summer and she was pale from this past winter. Her brown eyes were blazing with fury and she towered over Scarlett. Scarlett's bleached blond hair had gotten longer and she had added hot pink streaks to it. Her blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight coming through the open windows.

"She stole my diary!" Danielle says, pointing an accusing finger at Scarlett.

"For the millionth time, I did _not_ steal your stupid diary!" Scarlett says, knocking away Danielle's hand, obviously exasperated.

"I'll, um, I'll see you later Ky." Nico says, backing out of the room, cautiously.

"Bye, Nico." I say, giving him a quick kiss.

He closes the door behind him and I hear his light footsteps on the steps. Coward. He had no idea how lucky he was sometimes.

"Okay. Scarlett, did you or did you not take Danielle's diary?" I ask, tossing my bags onto my bed and collapsing onto the red love seat.

"No!" she shrieks.

"Okay then. If Scarlett says she didn't take it, she didn't" I say, leaning my head back.

"What?! You can't just pick sides!" Danielle says, stomping her foot.

"Did you even consider that maybe the Stolls took your diary?" I question.

Danielle stops her protests and grows silent. I look up to see her blushing and looking a little baffled. Scarlett, her arms crossed, had a smug look in her face.

"No. I didn't." she says.

"Okay. Go over there and demand to see them. Scarlett go with her. Oh, and has Keegan gotten here yet?" I ask.

"No. He called and said he wouldn't be getting here till the sixth." Scarlett says.

"Gotcha." I say, yawning.

They walk out, closing the door behind them. I fall asleep on the couch, curled up in a ball.

**A/N:**

**Kind of a short chapter... I think I'll upload another! BTW, why do you think Danielle blushed when Kyra mentioned the Stolls?**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"Kyra. Kyra wake up." I feel someone shaking my shoulder.

I open my eyes, my vision blurred from sleep. It was darker in the cabin than it had been earlier. I glance out the window to see a glimpse of the sun through the heavy foliage of the trees.

"Kyra. Come on. We need to go eat dinner." I look to where the voice had come from and see Danielle and Scarlett in the bathroom, touching up their hair and make-up.

I groan and sit up, my whole body aching. It probably would have been wiser to sleep on my bed rather than curled up on the couch.

"Okay. Have either of you seen Nico?" I ask, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"No. I think he's still asleep." Danielle says.

"Well, I'll go wake him up and meet you in front of the mess hall." I say, getting off of the couch and opening the door.

I close the door behind me and walk down the light gray stone steps of the Apollo cabin. I walk across the courtyard and up the black obsidian steps of the Hades cabin.

I knock on the door but no one answers. I sigh and turn the knob. It was pitch black inside. The black-out curtains were drawn and there were no lights on.

I flick the switch and I'm completely shocked at what I see. Everything was hot pink. The walls, the bed clothes, the ceiling, the floor had hot pink rugs all over it. Everything.

Nico was nowhere in sight. Just as I'm about turn off the light and walk out in search of Nico, I hear a scream. I bolt out of the cabin, slamming the door behind me, and run down the steps.

I look around the courtyard and see Nico chasing Connor and Travis around the fountain with his sword. The Stolls looked absolutely terrified and Nico looked so angry that his usually pale face was bright red.

I sprint over and step in between them. Nico skids to a stop and Travis and Connor cower behind me.

"What the Hades is going on here?" I demand, looking Nico in the eyes.

"Those two decided it would be cool to redecorate my cabin. In. Pink." he says, glaring at them.

"It was a harmless prank!" Travis says.

Nico moves to get past me but I place my hands on his shoulders and push him back.

"Stop. Killing them won't solve anything." I say.

"Thank you!" Connor says.

"That doesn't mean you two are off the hook. You're still going to be taken to Chiron." I say.

They both groan and I hear them turn around and start walking towards the Big House.

"Hey, wait!" I call after them.

They turn around, a look of doom on their faces.

"Did either of you happen to take Danielle's diary?" I ask.

They both shake their heads but I see that Connor's cheeks turned a light pink color when I mentioned Danielle.

"Okay. Well, go to Chiron then." I say, waving them off and turning back to Nico.

"I'm so glad this is their last year here." Nico says, glowering at them.

"Me too. How are you going to de-pink your room?" I ask, taking his hand and dragging him towards the mess hall.

"I have no clue. Maybe I'll beg my dad to change it back tonight when I do the offer." he says, shrugging.

I chuckle as we reach the marble steps. Nico heads in first, then Scarlett, Danielle, and I head in and sit down at our table.

**A/N:**

**Oh, boy. A hot pink bedroom for Nico. Poor, poor Nico. Let's hope Hades takes pity on him. Lol!**

**So how was everyone's week? Well, I spent every single day of the week with my best friend. Which is sort of unusual because we normally would have gotten sick of seeing each other that much but we didn't. We actually got a lot closer than we have previously been, which is nice.**

**My mom has been gone for the weekend to be with her friends so it's just been me and my dad since Thursday. Thanking the gods she's coming back tomorrow! I don't hate my dad or anything we just have nothing to talk about. EVER. Which makes conversing extremely hard and awkward.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed getting two chapters today! I hope everyone survives till Tuesday!**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"So did you find your diary?" I ask.

"No." Danielle scowls, "They weren't there when we went over."

"I know where they were." I say, then explain where they had been and what they had done to nearly get themselves killed.

Scarlett and Danielle start cracking up when I told them how scared the two brothers had looked being chased by Nico.

"It feels so weird here without Will." Scarlett says, suddenly, nudging her food around her plate with a fork.

I sigh. I knew this conversation was going to come up eventually this summer.

"I know. I miss him too. But he promised to call all the time." I say.

"Well, he better. Otherwise he's going to get his ass beaten." Scarlett says, cracking a small smile.

I laugh. I could just picture it. Danielle pinning Will down and Scarlett lashing out on him.

"So, who else do you think would steal your diary if it wasn't the Stolls?" I ask.

Danielle thinks for a second then says, "If it wasn't them, I'd say the Aphrodite cabin. But Piper usually keeps a leash on them."

"Those girls sure do like their secrets and gossip." I say, shaking my head.

"Yea. I think I'll ask Piper about that." she says.

"I'll ask." I say.

"Why you? It's not something of yours they stole." Danielle says.

"I need to ask her about something else too. I'll just bring it up." I say.

It was so unlike me but I needed to ask her about ideas for a romantic night for Nico and I. Our two year anniversary was coming up in a few days and I wanted to do something special.

"Okay." Danielle says, shrugging and going back to her food.

* * *

"What happened to your arm?" Scarlett asks as we head towards the campfire.

I had completely forgotten about the marks. They had been red before Cacus' blood had gotten all over them. Now they looked ten times worse, blackish stuff surrounding the edges of the cuts.

"Oh. Nico and I ran into a rogue harpy before we left Baltimore earlier today and it managed to claw me." I say, my grip tightening on Nico's hand.

"Didn't you eat some ambrosia or something?" Danielle asks.

"I did but I guess it's going to take a while for it to heal." I say.

"I think it had poison on it's claws." Nico pipes in.

I give him a grateful glance and say, "Yea. It stung really bad when it happened."

"Oh." Scarlett says.

We had reached the campfire and I looked around seeing that the grounds had been redone. It looked sorta like the Roman Coliseum except much smaller and in the shape of a hexagon. There were three rows of seats on all six sides and four little campfires on the edge of the stage, making an outline of a square.

Piper, Jason, and Leo were sitting on the right, in the middle section on the second row of the seats.

I start to head over there but Scarlett grabs my arm. I look at her and she points to the stage. Danielle was already up there setting up the amplifier for her guitar and Scarlett's keyboard. I felt like smacking myself. Since Will wasn't the head counselor of the Apollo cabin anymore, I had to lead the sing-along.

I look at Nico and he smiles, motioning for me to go up on the stage. Usually I didn't have a problem singing in front of people but there were a lot of campers here. My stomach started to tie itself in knots as I followed Scarlett up on stage. Not all the campers had arrived yet but most had. I really hoped I wouldn't screw up.

**A/N:**

**Surprise update! I'm at work with my mom again and wanted something to do. Maybe it made your Monday a little better, maybe not. :)**

**So I have to rant about music... not for the first time and not for the last. Okay, so no offence if you like pop but honestly, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THAT STUFF?! Most of it is talking about the exact same things. I just don't get it. I mean, yea there are a few exceptions in pop music but a large majority of it is all the same. It all sounds the same. If you've read my past A/Ns, then you know I feel that the best music comes from the artists who have the most pain in their past.**

**For a long time I listened to only pop music and turned my nose up at other genres of music. I was only listening to it because that's what all my friends were listening to. Pier pressure I guess you would say. But a couple of years ago I finally discovered Alternative music and that opened up Indi-Rock, Punk, Rock, amd several others. It has changed my life. You wouldn't believe how much music effects us. It puts ideas in our minds, it encourages us, it comforts us. It does anything and everything. Sometimes music is the only thing that can be there for you when you're feeling down.**

**Many bands have been there for me when I've been feeling depressed and just want to be away from the world. My whole point of this is, if you don't necessarily like the music you're listening to, if you're only listening to it because it's what your friends and the popular kids listen to and you don't want to be an outcast because of your different taste, screw them and listen to what you want! If they're truly your friends, they won't give a single fuck about what you listen to. They'll like you for you and stick with you no matter what kind of music you listen to. You're not their puppet to control or play with. You are an individual and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. People who think everyone should do exactly what they do need to realize that the world doesn't revolve around them.**

**I'm not saying that if you like pop music or any other kind of music you should stop listening to it just because I said to. That would be me going against my own words. I'm just saying not to judge other people by what they listen to. You might find that if you give other genres a chance, you like it as well as or even better than your current music choice. It just seriously ticks me off when someone outcasts another person just because they have different tastes. The outcasted person could be really amazing but the one doing the outcasting would never know because they didn't give the person a chance.**

**Okay, I'm done ranting now. I hope you guys have a good rest of the day and I'll talk to you guys again tomorrow! :)**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"Alright!" I say, holding the microphone up to my mouth.

"Who here is a fan of OneRepublic?" I ask.

A large majority of hands went up in the air.

I take a deep breath then say, "How about we sing some of their new stuff tonight?" I ask.

There were a lot of "yea's" and "heck yes's" to that. I turn my head and nod at Danielle and Scarlett.

_'"Lately, I've been, I've been losing sleep_  
Dreaming about the things that we could be  
_But baby, I've been, I've been praying hard,_  
_Said, no more counting dollars_  
_We'll be counting stars_  
_Yea, we'll be counting stars_

_I see this life like a swinging vine_  
_Swing my heart across the line _  
_In my face these flashing signs_  
_Seek it out and ye shall find_  
_The old, but I'm not that old_  
_Young, but I'm not that bold_  
_I don't think the world is sold_  
_I'm just doing what we're told'"_

A few of the campers had started singing with me now. I was getting more confident the more I sung. The knots in my stomach were loosening and I started to have fun.

_'"I feel so right_  
_Doing the wrong thing_  
_I feel something so wrong_  
_Doing the right thing_  
_I couldn't lie, couldn't lie, couldn't lie_

_Everything that kills me makes me feel alive_

_Lately, I've been, I've been losing sleep_  
_Dreaming about the things that we could be_  
_But baby, I've been, I've been praying hard,_  
_Said, no more counting dollars_  
_We'll be counting stars'"_

By this point, many of the campers had jumped to their feet and were singing full-on with me, matching every note with mine. Danielle and Scarlett were jamming out on their instruments and I was singing loudly but probably the best I ever had sung. It was amazing. It was like I was at a concert and they were the fans and I was the musician… Well, technically, I _was_ the musician. Or at least one of them.

We finished that song and switched back and forth between traditional camp songs and OneRepublic songs. I have to say, it was probably one of the best nights of my life.

**A/N:**

**Kind of a bleh chapter in my opinion but oh well. It needed to be there. The song Kyra sang is called "Counting Stars" and it's off of OneRepublic's new album "Native". Such an amazing band and I absolutely adore "Native"! The next chapter is better and chapter 17 is sooooo much better! I can;t wait for you guys to read it!**

**I feel like such a terrible person updating so late tonight! I had completely forgotten that it was Tuesday until almost 10:00. But, at least where I am, there's still one more hour left in the day!**

**Some of you may remember that a few chapters ago in the A/N I had said that I had some family issues. Well, that day I had been out with my brother and the company he works with is going down quickly and losing costumers. He's been desperately trying to find a job in the town we live in but there isn't one for his profession.**

**So, he's been looking out of state too. Well, that day he was expecting a call from someone that was offering a job and was interested in hiring him. They didn't call until about an hour after he was expecting the call and we had been in the middle of eating lunch. He told me not to tell our parents or anyone else in our family until he knew for sure that it was going to happen or until he and his wife were ready to tell them.**

**Tonight me and my mom met up with them and had dinner and he told her. He hasn't gotten the job yet but the company is seriously considering him. If they do hire him, that will mean that they're going to be moving five hours away. Now, I don't see my brother and sister-in-law that often but I still don't want them to move away.**

**They seem excited and happy about it though so I'm trying to be happy and excited about it too. And they probably won't always be there. They might move back if another job opens up back home that's better than the one he might get.**

**So, that was the family issue that I had to keep a secret until they were ready to tell everyone and I'm glad they finally did. It's hard for a 15 year old girl to keep a secret like that for two freakin weeks. Well, I didn't keep it a ****_total _****secret. I told my best friend about it the day I found out because she would have picked up on my bad mood and asked me what was wrong. But she's good at keeping secrets so I knew I could trust her not to tell anyone.**

**In a way though, I am happy for them. They'll get to explore a new place beyond our small town and have a new adventure together. I'm happy that they might get to do that.**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**

**P.S.**

**Thanks for the reviews! They make my days a billion times better! :)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

By the time Danielle, Scarlett, and I were done, I was about ready to drop. After we had done about half of OneRepublic's new album and a lot of camp songs, some of the campers from Hermes came up on stage and started telling ghost stories.

I went and sat with Nico and the others. I leaned my head against his shoulder and tried not to fall asleep. It was more difficult than you would think, considering how scary most of the ghost stories were. But I was so tired and it felt like I hadn't even taken an hour long nap earlier today.

Oh, how I couldn't wait to get in my bed and sleep. Just sleep. Not dreaming of the day Lucas left or some horrible vision. Just sleep.

* * *

I guess I had dozed off. I feel something creeping over my shoulder, almost like a spider, and I jerk up, nearly screaming. I whirl around to see Connor laughing so hard no sound was coming out and tears were rolling down his cheeks.

I clench my fists and throw myself on top of him, pinning him to the ground. He had stopped laughing and had a look of pure terror on his face.

"Honestly, Hale. You need to learn how to take a joke." he says, beads of sweat glistening on his forehead.

"My whole _life_ has been a joke for the past year. I'm pretty fed up with _jokes_." I hiss, still holding him down.

"Ky. Come on. Get off of him." I feel Nico's hand touch my shoulder.

I grudgingly get off of Connor and he smirks at me then makes a bee-line for his brother. I seriously wouldn't have a problem just strangling both of them. It would make my time at camp much easier.

"Kyra, are you okay?" Leo asks, leaning forward in his seat and gazing at me with his warm brown eyes.

"Fine." I say, stiffly, then walk towards the path.

I look around, seeing that everyone's attention was still on one of the kids making elaborate hand motions and stomping around on the stage. I was relieved no one had noticed that little scene with Connor. It was already bad enough that Nico and the others had seen, I didn't need everyone else at camp on my back about it.

"Ky. Kyra, wait up." Nico says, sprinting to catch up with me.

"I know, I know. I shouldn't have lashed out of Connor like that. I just-I lost it." I say, shrugging my shoulders.

"Shouldn't have lashed out on him? Kyra! That was the best thing I've ever seen!" he says, intertwining his fingers with mine.

"Really?" I ask, glancing at him.

"Yes! Honestly, you'd think both of them would know better than to mess with you by now." he says, rolling his eyes.

I laugh and say, "Yea. Especially after last year with the lake incident."

"They never learn." he tisks, shaking his head.

**A/N:**

**Reeeally short chapter. Chapter 17 is longer and a little more interesting, I promise! Did you like that tackle though?**

**So, I really hate it when people I barely know start asking me personal questions. I was walking around my neighborhood the other day with my friend when this girl from her school came up to us. She apparently live in my neighborhood. Anyway, she was talking to my friend when she turns to me. She asked me where I went to school and I told her I was home schooled and she asked like that was the most alien thing on the planet. She practically freaked out when I told her that and she looked at me like I was some sort of freak. THEN, she commences to ask me, a complete stranger to me mind you, "So how many friends do you have?"**

**Now this is sort of a sore subject. I'm not a friendless loser, if you were wondering, but I don't have an abundance of friends. The reason for this is because I'm extremely shy meeting people in person. But I'd rather have a small circle of real friends that I know are there for me rather than hundreds of friends who most likely aren't really my friends at all.**

**So when she asked me this, my friend didn't really think it was that big of a deal but to me, she has absolutely so business about how many friends I have. I wanted to sock that little bitch right in the nose and just storm off. But, being me, I didn't do that, so I kept my cool and just didn't answer her question, pretending that I didn't hear her.**

**Gahh! People piss me off so much sometimes. I'd rather just talk to you guys.**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

_Blistering hotness was all around me. There was a light so bright I could barely keep my eyes open, much less see. My eyes stung and my lungs felt like they were on fire._

_I hear someone screaming. It sounded close. I manage to open my eyes and I see that I'm in a house. Not just a house though. _My_ house. Red and yellow flames were eating away at the walls I'd looked at a million times and the floors I'd walked all over._

_Ash and black smoke filled the air and there was shattered glass on the floor where the picture frames had burst from the extreme heat._

_I head down the fiery inferno of a hallway, trying to find the person screaming bloody murder. I make it to m_y _mom's door and see that the whole room was in flames. I peer through the smoke and flames to see a withering figure on the bed._

_I run in, through the blaze, instant heat blisters popping up all over my skin. I make it to the bed and see my mother engulfed in flames. Her skin was so damaged it was nearly impossible to recognize her. Her skin was red and charred black. All of her hair was burned away, leaving a bleeding, bald head. I could see some bone here and there and nearly threw up at the sight._

_She was still screaming. Screaming like she was in the fields of punishment and was being forced to take a bath in scalding hot lava, over and over again. This most likely wasn't much different._

_I reach out to touch her and she instantly stops screaming, going eerily still and letting the flames consume the rest of her body. I stand there, paralyzed with horror, as my mother disappears right in front of my eyes and into ash._

* * *

I sit up in bed, gasping for air and drenched in sweat. I could still smell the terrible black smoke and my eyes were burning so badly that it felt like they might dry up and fall out of my skull.

I scramble out of bed and rip open my back-pack. I dig around until I feel my phone. I take it out and slip on my black TOMS. I sneak over to the door and open it. I slip out onto the porch and sit down, my back against the wall.

I don't even look to see what time it is before I go to John's number and press call. It rung a few times before he finally answered.

"Hello?" he answers, blearily.

"John." I croak out.

"Kyra? Is everything alright?" he asks, the sleepiness leaving his voice.

"Where's mom?" I demand.

"What are you talking about? I assume she's at home. Asleep. Like I should be." he grumbles, sounding irritated now.

"Have you heard any sirens? Like, fire truck sirens?" I ask, feeling panicky.

"No, Kyra. I haven't. Would you care to tell me _why_ you're calling me at 2:30 in the morning and going on about sirens?" he asks.

I hold my breath for a second then tell him about my dream. It all comes out extremely quickly. I wanted to get it out as soon as possible so I might have a chance at erasing the horrible images from my mind.

"Kyra, mom is okay, I'm okay. There was no fire and probably won't be. It was just a bad dream." he soothes.

"Are you sure?" I ask, a slight tremor in my voice.

"Yes. I'm absolutely positive." he says.

This conversation reminded me of the time I had fallen off my bike and scraped up my hands and knees. John had told me, being the big brother he is, that I was going to get an infection in the cuts and my legs and arms would have to be amputated. Now, I had been about five at that point and him saying that had terrified the living daylights out of me.

But then, when I was nearly bawling my eyes out, he told me there was a chance that wouldn't happen but he needed to clean up the cuts. He had commenced to carry me into the house and bandage my scrapes with several band-aids.

"Okay." I sigh in relief.

"Can I go back to bed now?" he asks, weary.

"Yes. Thank you, John." I say.

"No problem." he says, a yawn interrupting him.

"Goodnight, John." I say.

"'Night, Kyra." he says, then hangs up.

I take the phone away from my ear and sit on the porch for a few minutes. I could just barely hear the lapping of water on the shore of the Sound. Back in the woods I could hear some monster thrashing around and also the music the crickets were making.

I get up and go back inside the cabin before I fall asleep on the porch. I crawl back into bed and under the blankets, feeling warm and not quite so panicked. John was right. It had just been a bad dream.

**A/N:**

**Or was it? That's the question. What do you guys think? Was it a nightmare or was it a piece of the future? The next chapter is just kinda funny, in my opinion.**

**So how was everyone's weekend? Mine was pretty low-key. I went to class Saturday morning then stayed home for the rest of the day. Sunday was about the same.**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"Come _on_, Kyra!" I hear Scarlett say, yanking my pillow out from under my head.

I sit up, my head pounding. I look to see the sun streaming in through the sheer yellow curtains and some campers walking to the mess hall for breakfast. I could smell the strawberry pancakes and organic bacon already. I get out of bed and grab my clothes and head into the bathroom.

I had no idea where Danielle was but she had obviously been in the bathroom. Her make-up was scattered all over the counter and her curling iron was still on. Sometimes I think there was a mix-up in Olympus and she was actually supposed to be a daughter of Aphrodite.

I pull on my vintage, blue tee-shirt and my old, ripped up jeans. I roll the jeans up so that they fall to my lower calf. I comb the tangles out of my short chocolaty brown hair and commence to straighten it. When I was done, I applied my dark brown, water-proof eye-liner.

I walk out of the bathroom and over to my trunk. I toss my pajamas inside and take out my high-tops. Scarlett was sitting on the couch and tapping her foot, obviously ready to eat and get on with training.

"Where's Danielle?" I ask, tying my laces.

"Oh. She left earlier this morning to meet with Connor." she says, stiffly.

"Why is she meeting up with Connor?" I ask, curious.

"It makes me want to puke to even think about it." she says.

"About what?" I ask, getting irritated with Scarlett.

"She's _dating_ him." she says, turning a pale shade of green.

"Danielle? She's _dating_ Connor?" I ask, unbelieving.

Scarlett nods.

"Yeck." I say, crinkling up my nose.

"I know." she moans.

"Well, if she's dating him, that gives him easy access to her stuff. I'd bet money that he stole her diary." I say, standing up and going over to the door.

"Oh, about that." she says.

"He came up to her last night after the campfire and gave it to her. Somehow, it managed to make it into his duffle bag when he came to camp a few days ago." she says, rolling her eyes.

"He seriously couldn't come up with anything better than that? That makes it so obvious that he took it!" I say, throwing my hands up in the air.

"I know. Danielle just doesn't want to believe that her sweet Con-Con could do such a thing to her." she says.

"_Con_-_con_?" I ask, trying to not laugh.

She giggles and says, "Yea. She came up with it. I'm pretty sure he despises it."

I laugh as we walk past the fountain and towards the mess hall. Connor obviously took Danielle's diary. Gods knew why she wanted to date a kid of Hermes.

**A/N:**

**Short and funny chapter. Did you guys know that Danielle and Connor were dating or was it a complete surprise? Tuesday's chapter is much longer and it starts to get a little more twisted. Okay. ****_A lot_**** twisted!**

**So, honestly I just wish I could punch some people in the face. There's this bratty know-it-all twelve year old girl who takes classes with me and she's getting on my last nerve.**

**A) She complains all the time and never gets anything done.**

**B) She thinks she has the right to lounge around the studio while everyone else is cleaning up.**

**C) She makes rude remarks about people who are ****_in the room._**

**D) She called me anti-social! I am not anti-social I just don't like to have huge crowds of people around me all the time. I have days where I just want to be by myself and other days I want to be out and about and talk to people.**

**There are several other reasons as to why I dislike her. Those are just the biggest ones that come to mind.**

**And then today at class, everybody decided they wanted to go play laser-tag after class. Well, I honestly have no interest in laser-tag. But anyway. They all started getting excited. I had already told my friend that I really wasn't in the mood to do anything today and I just wanted to go back to sleep. I have no clue why I'm so tired today, I just am. So she acted like she understood but what did she do when I said I didn't want to go? She acts all hurt and angry because I'm not going.**

**Now I understand that they all wanted me to go, but they just need to understand that some days, you just need a day to yourself where you don't have to do anything.**

**But seriously, my friend has bad days all the time and she vents to me. I listen to her ****_all the time. _****Do I ever complain about getting sick and tired of hearing her going on and on about her on-again off-again relationships? NO! Do I ever complain about not wanting to hear about her mom and dad working a lot? NO! And when I have to vent to her about stuff going on in ****_my_**** life, she's on her phone and not paying any attention whatsoever to what I'm saying!**

**It's like she thinks the whole world revolves around her and she's the only one allowed to have bad days. GAHH!**

**In other news, my brother and his wife returned from his interview. He declined the job. So, they're not moving out of state! The reason why he turned it down was because the company wouldn't even consider talking to him about his pay until he took the job. That seems kinda sketchy. I think they're happy that they're not moving though. He's still avidly looking for a new job with better pay and better hours. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he finds one!**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by our extraordinarily talented Uncle Rick.

* * *

When Scarlett and I got to our table, Danielle was sitting there poking around at her food. She was staring dreamily towards the Hermes table. I could easily guess _who_ she was staring at.

We sit down and a nymph brings me and Scarlett our plates. They were heaped with giant pancakes with chunks of strawberries in them. There were also quite a few pieces of bacon. I reach for the maple syrup across the table and drench my pancakes in the sticky amber liquid.

Scarlett was already scoffing hers down by the time I got all my food prepped for eating. Just as I took my first bite, a blindingly golden light poured into the mess hall.

I shield my eyes, trying to block the light out. When the light fades, I take my hand away to see Apollo standing on the marble steps. He looks around then spots our table. He narrows his eyes and makes a bee-line for us.

I wasn't sure whether I should feel happy or terrified. He definitely didn't _look_ happy. I glance at Scarlett and Danielle and see they're staring at Apollo in awe. I guess they had never met him. It's not unusual. Not many demigods meet their godly parent.

He stops right in front of me and motions with his finger for me to follow him. I give an apologetic shrug to Scarlett and Danielle then swing my legs over the bench and get up. I stare straight ahead as we make our way out. It didn't wash away the fact that everyone in the mess hall was staring at me though.

* * *

I followed Apollo all the way to the dock. When we were at the edge of it he spun around and stared me down, his golden eyes blazing.

"What?" I ask, defensively, placing my hands on my hips.

"What in the world were you thinking?!" he explodes.

"What are you talking about? What did I do?" I ask, seriously confused.

"What did you _do_? Oh, let's see. You cut yourself on purpose, for one. _Then_, you left your mother alone and ran off with that boyfriend of yours. _And_, you nearly got yourself killed when you were in the Underworld! So, let me ask again. _What_ were you _thinking_?" he fumed.

"Well, let's see. I cut myself because I thought I had deserved it. My mother hasn't been the same after that sleeping trance was broken and Lucas left us and John was blaming it all on me. I ran away because I couldn't handle her throwing vodka bottles at me anymore and I was sick of dragging her into bed when she was so hammered she could barely stand up. And last, a monster attacked us! What do you expect for two powerful demigods?!" I shout at him, furious.

I turn away from him, feeling angry tears wanting to drop, and stare out at the clear, green water of the lake. There were a few naiads weaving away at their baskets. I wondered if they ever finished them or if they just kept working on the same ones forever.

I feel his warm hand on my arm and he turns me back around to face him. I look into his golden eyes. They were full of worry. I was almost shocked. I didn't think Apollo cared that much for me. He hadn't been shouting at me because he was angry. He had done it because he was worried about me.

"I know." he says, his voice more gentle.

"You-you know?" I ask, cocking my head to the side.

"I do." he says, taking my scarred arm and examining it.

"They're still there. I assume you know what monster attacked us in the Underworld." I say.

"Cacus." he says, bitterly, his mouth twisting into a frown.

"They hadn't quite scabbed over yet and his blood splashed all over me. That just made it worse." I say.

"They look better. The scars won't go away for a while though." he says.

"Why?" I ask, letting my arm drop.

"Because you haven't healed yet." he says.

"What do you mean? I'm perfectly fine." I say.

"No. You may be healed physically, but not mentally." he says.

"Mentally? Are you saying I'm crazy?" I ask.

"No, no. A better word would be emotionally. You still think you deserve those cuts, don't you?" he asks, looking at me with sad eyes.

I gaze down and shrug my shoulders.

"I guess." I say, so quiet it was barely a whisper.

"The scars won't fade until you've accepted the fact that you didn't deserve those cuts. You couldn't have prevented any of the things that have happened. Not your mother's sleeping trance, not Lucas leaving, and not John putting the blame on you. But none of it was your fault." he says, putting a finger under my chin and making me look up.

"It's partly my fault." he says.

"How?" I ask.

"Let me tell you a story." he says, sitting down on the edge of the dock.

He pats the spot next to him and I sit down and wait for him to go on. I wanted to know why he thought all of this was partially his fault.

"When I met your mother, she was only seventeen. I saw her at a small coffee shop in downtown Baltimore. She had been with her best friend at the time. But I barely saw her friend. I knew, in that instant, that I loved your mother and only her. To this day, she's the only mortal I've ever truly loved. If there was a way to make her immortal, I'd do it, just so I could be with her for every day for eternity." he says, gazing out at the little island with the giant olive tree on it.

I wait for him to keep going.

"I went up and introduced myself. She had had a collection of Robert Frost poems with her and I had commented that he was one of my favorite poets. We hit it off. She lived life to the fullest, doing anything and everything that she could. She loved her family and friends more than anything else in the world. But one of the things that caught my eye, she could see through the Mist. She had known what I was before I had said a single word to her." he says, looking down at his feet.

"After a few months of dating we got more serious. You know that friend I mentioned that had been with her? She came over often. Her name was Leah. She and your mother were very close friends. She was quite beautiful too but nothing compared to Michelle. I got the feeling every now and then that she was jealous of Michelle." he says.

"And why would that be?" I ask. My mother had never talked about her past with Apollo. I was curious.

"See, Leah didn't come from the best of families. Her parents fought a lot and never paid the slightest bit of attention to her. Michelle, on the other hand, grew up in a loving home. Her parents never fought and they always had enough time for her. Then she found me and had everything. A wonderful family, great friends, and now a serious boyfriend whom she was having a child with." he explains.

"One day, about a month after I found out Michelle was pregnant with you, I was going over to her house. When I had pulled into her driveway, I noticed that Leah's car was there too. I headed inside to hear a few screams and pleads. I immediately went in the direction they had come from." he says.

"What happened?" I ask, eyes wide.

"I came into the kitchen to find that Leah had cornered Michelle and was about to pull the trigger on a hand gun." he says.

"What did you do?" I gasp.

"The first thing that came to mind. A curse." his voice was hollow.

"It's always a curse." I mumble.

"What?" he asks.

"Nothing. Continue." I say, motioning with my hands.

"I turned Leah into the first thing that had come to my mind. An empousa." he says, a look of dread on his face.

"No." I say, the realization hitting me hard.

"Yes." he nods, mournfully.

"Leah is Callie." he says.

**A/N:**

**Suuuuuper long chapter! Did any of you guys see ****_that_**** coming? I told you that it was about to get extremely twisted! And thank you, Star Holder Commander, for the idea about Kyra's cuts not healing until she healed emotionally. I was trying to figure out where exactly to put it and this seemed like the perfect place! I hope everyone enjoyed the long chapter and hopefully you guys will be satisfied until Saturday... But you never know with me. It might be sooner if I decide to do a surprise update. I'll need to write more before I do that though...**

**And for anyone wanting to know about the strawberry pancakes. I have tried them and they're super delicious! I just slice up a few strawberries and plop them in the pancakes before I flip them over. Raspberry pancakes are also really good. You just tear up the raspberries and put them on the pancakes. Mmmmmmmm.**

**I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the day and a great week! Thank you all so so much for the reviews! They mean the world to me :)**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**

**P.S.**

**Can ya tell I'm in a good mood today? Haha! :)**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"Wait, so you're telling me that Callie, who married your brother and tried to kill him, then pretended to be a daughter of Hecate, is actually your mom's old friend from high school?" Nico asks, stabbing a dummy in the stomach.

"Yep. That sums it up." I say, nodding my head.

"And she's only an empousa because she tried killing your mom and Apollo just happened to walk in at the right time and stop it?" he asks, turning around to look at me, with an incredulous look on his face.

"Yea." I say, nodding again.

"I wonder if your mom recognized Callie when she was putting the sleeping trance on her." he says, looking at the mutilated dummy on the ground.

"Maybe. It would explain why she looked so terrified when I walked into the bathroom. Well, that and there was a monster within five feet of her." I say, shrugging my shoulders.

Nico walks over and sits next to me on the wooden bench. For a change, he was wearing a blue tee-shirt, not black. I honestly didn't know he owned any shirts that weren't black. It was a nice change. The shirt was soaked through with sweat and his shaggy, black hair was plastered to his neck and forehead.

"So do you think that this whole thing is just to get revenge on your mom?" he asks.

"Probably. That makes the most sense. Either her or Apollo." I say.

"Why would she need to get revenge on Apollo?" he asks.

"Because he picked my mom instead of her. She was jealous of my mother. I guess she figures that torturing us will somehow get back at Apollo." I say.

"Well, at least we know _why_ she's doing this now." he says, standing up and sheathing his sword.

He gives me a hand and pulls me up from the bench.

"That's one thing Bianca told me before she was reborn and tried for the Isles of the Blest." he says.

"What was that?" I ask. I was slightly startled he was talking about Bianca. He hardly ever did.

"Never hold a grudge. It's bad when a regular person does, but when a child of Hades holds one, things go really _really_ bad." he says.

"She was definitely wise. I would have loved to have met her." I say, gazing up at the blue sky.

"You will someday. We'll also meet my mother." he says, smiling a little.

"Let's just hope it's a long way away." I say.

"Let's hope." he say, giving my hand a squeeze.

* * *

"Hey. How's mom?" I ask John.

Nico had just gone back to his cabin to shower off before dinner and I was walking around the green. I figured it would be a good time to call John. A few of the Nike kids were playing basketball on the courts.

"She's good. I've been stopping by everyday before and after work. She's started slowing down on the drinking but she still smokes like crazy. She even sent in a few applications at different places." he says.

"Huh. Guess I was holding her back." I say, kicking at a stone.

"No, no. She just needed a wake-up call. That's all." he says, reassuring me.

"Just keep saying that. It doesn't change the fact that she hated seeing me." I say.

"Kyra. You leaving was what needed to happen. She's been in a funk ever since the trance was broken. She just needed something to bring her back to life. You running away made her realize that she hasn't been a very good mom." he says.

"Okay. Has Lucas called?" I ask, feeling a little hopeful.

"What do you think?" John asks, sounding indignant.

"No?" I ask, the hope crumbling to dust.

"You got it." he says.

"Kyra!" I hear someone call from behind me.

I turn around and see Mo sprinting at full speed towards me, his violet eyes shining in the afternoon sunlight and his black, curly hair bouncing as he ran towards me.

"John, I'm gonna have to let you go. Call me if anything at all happens." I say. I was still a little spooked about that dream.

"Will do." he says.

I hang up just as Mo practically tackles me to the ground with one of his signature bear hugs.

"What the hell happened to you? You practically dropped off the face of the planet!" he says, letting me go and picking his duffle bag up again.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you tonight." I say, running my fingers through my messy hair.

"What did you do to your arm?" he asks, taking my still-scarred arm in his hands.

"It's part of the story. Trust me, you don't want to hear it now. It'll just get you down." I say.

He looks at me for a second then says, "Whatever you say, Ky. I'm going to go put up my things. I'll see you at dinner!"

I sigh. Now I was going to have to explain the whole thing all over again. Every day I regretted putting those marks on my arm more and more. I could be so damn stupid at times.

**A/N:**

**Kind of a bleh chapter in my opinion. Not much really happened. Man, this is one long-ass story! I just wrote four more pages of stuff for chapter 25 (loooooong chapter!) and tonight I'll probably start working on chapter 31!**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

* * *

Disclaimer: Sadly, I am not Rick Riodan and therefor do not own the PJ or HoO series. If I_ was _Rick Riodan, I would have published House of Hades already instead of letting all the readers die of suspense with having to wait a whole fucking year for it to come out!

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want me there?" Nico asks as we leave the campfire.

"Yea. I need to talk to him and be able to get the full story out. You would distract me if you were there." I say, giving him a sly grin.

"That is what I do best. Distracting teenage girls and hypnotizing them with my good looks." he says, smirking and flexing his biceps.

I roll me eyes, trying not to laugh, and say, "Sure. Okay. Just keep on telling yourself that. I'll see you tomorrow."

We had reached the Apollo cabin steps. Other campers were walking, tiredly, towards their own cabins. The moon was full and the stars were shining brightly.

He kisses me then starts walking toward his own cabin, it's torches alight with the green flames of the Underworld.

I turn around and walk up the stone steps of the Apollo cabin. I push open the door and nearly throw up the s'mores I had had at the campfire.

Danielle and Connor were on the red loveseat making out. The door creeks a little and they break apart, breathless and blushing furiously.

"I, uh-I'll see you tomorrow Danni." Connor says, scrambling off the couch and sliding past me.

I watch him scamper towards cabin eleven and through the door. I roll my eyes and close the door behind me.

"Is it safe to come out now?" I hear Scarlett ask from the bathroom.

"Yes!" I say.

Danielle had gone silent and was carefully taking her pajamas out of her trunk. I walk over and stand beside her, hands on my hips. She looks up and blushes.

"So I assume you got your diary back?" I question, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. I did." she says.

"Good. I'm glad he gave it back." I say.

She was about to say something when there was a knock on the door. I go over and open it to find Mo standing there.

"I'll be back in a few minutes." I say, closing the door behind me.

We sit down on the steps and look up at the night sky. We were silent for a while but Mo finally broke it.

"What happened?" he asks.

I sigh and plunge into the story, starting from when I had gotten home that night after I had talked to him. It felt like the story would never end. Hearing it myself, me who had done and experienced all of it, I started to feel a little dejected.

When I had finished, Mo was laying down and looking up at the porch's overhang. His purple eyes were dark and sad, looking a little moist too.

"Oh, Kyra." he says, placing a hand over his eyes.

"I know." I groan, letting my head fall into my hands

"I wouldn't change a thing though." I say, after a few minutes of sitting in silence.

"Why not?" he asks, sounding surprised.

"Because somehow, the whole experience has made me feel stronger. I don't know why, but it has." I say, shrugging my shoulders.

"I think that maybe you had felt numb, not alive, for the past year. And when you cut yourself, you realized that you _were_ alive. That you had other things you needed to get done. You weren't dead and you just had to make yourself realize that." he says.

"You know, you can be extremely wise sometimes, Mo." I say, looking at him, a small smile on my lips.

"It's not every day I hear that." he says, standing up and stretching.

I laugh and stand up as well. He gives me a hug then heads back to his cabin. I look after him as he goes up the steps, the colored tiles arranged to look like grape vines crawling up the steps. He runs his hand along the ivy covered wall and then disappears through the door.

**A/N:**

**SURPRISE UPDATE! I figured that it's been a while since I've done one and you guys deserved another because you're all so awesome! I think my favorite part in this chapter is the beginning where Kyra and Nico are talking :)**

**I'm currently at work with my mom (not for the first time and not for the last). She gets off at 5 and then I think we're going to go pick up my friend and then her and I are going to go to the park by my house. It's a bit chilly where I am at the moment but it's supposed to warm up throughout the week.**

**Yesterday I went to the mall with the said friend above. I got the cutest tank top and blue-jean jacket! The shirt is an olive green with the American flag printed across it in black and the jacket is just a regular old blue-jean jacket. As Gerard Way once said, I am a jacket slut. I have so many jackets. I have a burgundy aviator jacket (Target), a light brown leather jacket (Target), a blue plaid peacoat (Old Navy), a fleece Columbia jacket (Goody's), a light blue button up sweater/jacket thing (Target), an Old Navy zip-up hoodie (Obviously from Old Navy), a black peacoat (Either JCPenny or Belk), and now, a blue-jean jacket (TJ Maxx). Wow, I know.**

**For some reason I have become obsessed with old sheriffs badges. I have no clue why but I want one sooooooooo bad. So I went on ebay the other day and found this one person who was selling 29 of them for $100! And it wasn't just sheriff badges, there were all kinds of badges! I wanted to buy that so bad, but, sadly, I do not have that kind of money just laying around :( Oh well! I'll get one some day!**

**I hope having a surprise update made your Monday better and I'll talk to you guys again tomorrow! :)**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

* * *

****Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

_I reach out to touch her and she instantly stops screaming. She turns her head towards me, her green eyes full of agony._

_I stand there, paralyzed with horror, as she reaches out and brushes her hand against my cheek. Even though the flames were quickly consuming her, her skin was ice cold._

_"Run." she whispers._

* * *

I wake up, a scream frozen in my throat. My arm was burning where the scars were. My whole body felt like it was about to burst into flames. I kick the blankets off of myself and get out of bed.

The Apollo cabin was dark besides the little bit of moonlight filtering in through the sheer curtains. Danielle and Scarlett were both sound asleep in their beds.

I walk around to the foot of my bed and open my trunk, getting out my faded skinny jeans with holes on the knees and thighs. I also grab my navy blue v-neck. I head into the bathroom and close the door behind me. I look at myself in the mirror and see that my skin looked like it had been scrubbed raw.

I hop into the shower and turn the cold water on. I stand under the icy stream for at least five minutes before the intense heat finally leaves my body. I turn off the water and get out.

I get dressed then go back out and lace up my hi-tops. I grab my cell phone then walk out the door and down the steps.

* * *

It was just past five in the morning when I get to the sword arena. The sun was creeping into the sky, shading it in brilliant reds and oranges and bathing everything in rosy sunlight.

I drag out a couple of the training dummies and then commence to shoot at them. I pretended that they're Callie and her minions. I hated her with a passion now. I wanted her out of my life forever.

She had fucked around with my mother's life, John's life, and my life. All because she was jealous of my mother. All because my mom had a good family and people that loved her.

"Letting off steam?" I hear a familiar voice behind me.

I turn around to see Mo standing in the entrance to the arena. He looked as if he had just rolled out of bed with his disheveled, curly hair and his rumpled clothes. He had his sword sheathed and strapped around his waist. Something tells me he didn't sleep all that well either.

"Bad dream." I say, turning back to the dummies.

I hear his light tread as he walks toward me. He stops right beside me and looks at the mutilated dummies, arrows sticking out of every place imaginable on their bodies. Straw was falling out of their stuffed bodies and littering the arena floor.

"Want to talk about it?" he asks, glancing at me with his brilliant purple eyes.

I'm silent for a second then say, "Yea."

We go and sit down on the benches and I start to tell him about the first time I had had the dream. It reminded me of when we were still in Baltimore, before we found out we were demigods, and I would tell him about my crazy dreams I had every night.

Except this time, they were terrifying. Not silly or weird. Those had been fake. My imagination running wild while I was sleeping. These dreams had a chance of not being fake. It might turn out to be true. That was the most terrifying thing about it.

**A/N:**

**A bit of a depressing thought ending this chapter. Really short chapter as well. I will admit it. Kyra is mostly based off of me. But there are some traits to her that I do not have. The crazy dream thing is definitely from me because I have the weirdest dreams imaginable. She also looks a bit like me. BUT, I would never walk up on-stage and sing in front of a ton of people. I'd be absolutely terrified to do that. I guess you could say she's a bit more adventurous than me. **

**Yes, the chapter is a bit later than it usually would be today. I don't think you guys understand how hard it was for me to physically turn on my computer, pull up this story, edit this chapter, and then upload it. My stomach has been hurting like crazy since about 8:30 this morning and it's pretty much just gotten worse over the course of the day. Bleh. Girl problems :( I hope everyone is feeling better than I am at the moment and has had a semi-okay day. **

**XOXO, **

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"Hey." Nico says, plopping down beside me.

I was at the Apollo cabin, sitting on the steps. I had been texting John, checking up on mom again. He had just told me that he needed to get back to work but he'd talk to me later in the day.

"Hey." I say, glancing up from my phone at him.

He takes my arm and examines the scars. They had started to scab over, indicating that they were finally healing. The black stuff was still around them though. That bothered me.

"It's starting to look a little better." he says.

"Yea. I'm glad. I just want to scrub them off my skin and pretend none of it ever happened." I say.

"Mo told me about your dream." he says.

"Yea?" I say, glancing at him.

"It might just be a nightmare, Kyra. Sometimes dreams are just dreams and sometimes they're not." he says.

"So, you're saying that there's still a chance it's not just a dream?" I ask.

"There's always going to be that possibility. Here at camp, dreams are always stronger. They're usually visions or warnings. For the Apollo kids, it's more likely to be snippets of the future." he says.

"You're not making me feel any better about it." I say, propping my chin in my hand.

"I know. I'm just letting you know." he says, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

I lean my head against his shoulder and sit there for a second. Since when did my life get this complicated? Two years ago I was worrying about what the girls at school thought of me. Now, I'm worrying about whether my mother is going to survive to the end of the summer.

* * *

"Why don't we skip dinner and go exploring?" Nico suggests.

"That sounds like an excellent idea." I say, smiling.

"Come on." he says, standing up and giving me a hand.

We walk out of the courtyard and into the woods. The sun was speckling everything with golden, afternoon light. The leaves and twigs were crunching beneath our feet as we walked further into the woods.

Every once and a while I'd hear something moving up ahead. Sometimes it sounded like your average bunny rabbit and other times it sounded like the Calydonian Boar was trampling everything in sight.

After a while we reached a clearing. It looked to be a circular field, surrounded by pine and oak trees. There were a few patches of wild flowers here and there, their bright colors little pinpricks in a sea of green.

We tromp across the field and to the very center of it. Nico looks around and then at me.

"Wait here." he says.

"Okay." I say, eyeing him.

He was definitely up to something. He had a bright glint in his eyes and his pale, olive skin was glowing in the sunlight. I sit down on the grass and look up at the clear blue sky.

"Close your eyes!" I hear Nico say.

I sigh out of exasperation but do as I'm told and close them. I hear him coming back over to me. He stops and I hear him set something down on the ground.

"Open." he says.

I do and see a picnic basket in front of me. It instantly hit me what today was. It was our anniversary. Why was it that I always forgot important things like birthdays and anniversaries? Wasn't it supposed to be the reverse? The guy always forgets and the girl always remembers and then gets angry at the guy for forgetting?

"I feel so stupid." I say, smacking my forehead.

"Why?" he asks, opening the basket.

"I completely forgot what today was." I say, feeling terrible.

"It's okay." he says, grinning at me.

"Let's promise something." I say.

"What?" he asks.

"For our future anniversaries, let's not get each other anything. Because this will most likely not be that last time I forget and I always feel terrible when I don't get you anything." I say.

He chuckles and says, "But you've already given me something."

I cock my head to the side, not knowing what in the world he was talking about.

"_You_. You have given me anything and everything I could ever want or imagine. You're funny and always manage to make me smile. You're beautiful, smart, brave, and strong. The best thing is that when I met you, I was in a bad place. Nightmares of being in Tartarus were still haunting me. When I met you, they disappeared. The first night you were at camp was the first night I had slept peacefully in years. You love me more than anyone else even though I have my flaws. I couldn't ask for anything else." he says, looking into my eyes.

I hadn't even realized I had been crying until Nico reached over and wiped the tears away with his thumb. No one had ever said something so beautiful and sincere to me. Never.

Instead of replying, I just threw myself into his arms and practically suffocated him in a hug. I buried my face in the crook of his neck, where it fit perfectly.

* * *

We sat in the field for quite awhile, munching on cheese and crackers and watching the sun sink lower in the sky.

Eventually the moon came out and the stars started to blink on. We were laying down on the blanket of grass and looking up at the sky. The stars looked like brilliant diamonds, sparkling in the moonlight.

I was about to doze off when I felt a sharp buzz in my back pocket. I sit up, abruptly, and take out my phone. I look at the screen and see that Scarlett had texted me and was wondering where I was. It was 8:45 and that meant that the campfire was starting soon.

"Nico. I need to get to the campfire." I say, shaking his shoulder.

He groans and sits up. He had dozed off about fifteen minutes ago.

"I forgot. Come on." he says, standing up.

I pick up the basket and we hurry back into the woods. I really wish I didn't have to sing every night. It would be nice if it was only a few nights a week. Some nights the Hermes cabin would tell ghost stories, other nights my cabin would perform, and sometimes we'd just watch a movie on a projector screen. I'd have to talk to Chiron and Mr. D about that…

**A/N:**

**Longish chapter! I hope everyone enjoyed it! Chapter 24 and 25 are soooooo much better! I started writing one of the last chapters the other day and I think you guys are going to have a serious love/hate relationship with me... But don't worry! There's still much more to read my lovelies! I just finished chapter 35 last night and I'm probably going to start 36 tonight! **

**So how was everyone's week? Mine was fine I suppose. Sorta boring because I didn't really do much. Yesterday I ordered my white hi-tops and they should be at the store sometime next week! Sooooo excited! I don't think it's normal to be this excited over shoes... Oh well! **

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**

**P.S.**

**I might do a surprise update sometime between Tuesday and Saturday so keep your eyes open! :)**


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan

* * *

The campers were just starting to sit down when Nico and I got to the campfire grounds. He goes to sit with Leo and the others and I go up on stage.

Danielle and Scarlett were setting stuff up and getting everything ready. I tap the microphone to see if it was on and in working order and the sound echoed throughout the hexagonal shape of the stadium.

Scarlett tells me that we're ready and we start off with some traditional camp songs. I noticed that every once and a while the four small fires on the edges of the stage would burn brighter than normal.

I pushed the uneasiness in the pit of my stomach aside and told myself I was imagining it. My imagination _did_ go crazy every now and then so it wasn't out of the ordinary for something like this to happen.

We were in the middle of singing about how we loved the mountains, go figure, Danielle suggested it, when the fires blazed up at least fifty feet.

We stop the song and everyone gazes at the fires in wonder. There's a loud explosion and everybody drops to the floor on their stomachs, covering their heads.

I look up and see that words were being written in the air, about twenty feet above us. I read along as the sentence progresses. Reading it gave me chills and made me want to curl up and cry.

It said, in bright orange fire, "The Hale family will burn".

* * *

Needless to say, after the words in the sky faded, I bolted off the stage and started running towards my cabin like a drakon was chasing me. Tears of absolute terror were steaming down my face.

Those words made me think that my dream was real. That my house would go up in flames, along with my mother and everything familiar that I knew.

I reach the cabin, stopping right in front of the steps. I wouldn't be able to lock Scarlett and Danielle out and I couldn't lock myself in the bathroom for the rest of the night.

I didn't have much time to think about what I should do because I already heard Nico and the others calling after me. I could tell they were getting closer so I made a last minute decision.

I ran across the courtyard and behind the cabins. I found the two giant oak trees and slid in between them and started walking on the nearly invisible path. I made my way through the woods, walking carefully on the path, careful not to trip on the overgrown roots.

The path finally ends and I find myself on the cliff overlooking the hills covered in Moonlace. The one Nico took me to last year before I left with Thalia and Phoebe to track down Selene and Helios. It felt more like a million years had passed rather than just barely a year.

I sit down and gaze at the Moonlace far down below. The stream was still there too, winding it's way across the bottom of the hills and glimmering in the moonlight.

After a while, I pull out my phone and see it's almost ten thirty. I go straight to John's number and call him. He answers on the second ring.

"What Kyra?" he asks, sounding like he was half asleep.

I immediately tell him about what happened at the campfire tonight, the words feeling like they couldn't get out of my mouth fast enough.

"Now, you can't tell me that my dream was just a nightmare now." I say.

The line is silent as he tries to figure out what to say. I hear a twig snap behind me and I whirl around.

I see a dark silhouette outlined behind the trees. I get on my feet and peer closer, still waiting for John to answer.

"Kyra. Thank the gods I found you!" it was Nico.

He steps out from behind the trees and into the moonlight. He looked tired and weary. Probably from trying to find me.

"Kyra, let's deal with this tomorrow." John says, yawning.

"But John! This needs immediate attention!" I say.

"Goodnight, Kyra." he says.

I hear the line go silent and I let my hand drop. I turn around and see Nico still standing there, looking a little confused.

"Nico." I breathe, rushing into his open arms.

He holds me tightly as I try and calm down a little. I wished John would have paid more attention. I'd have to call him again tomorrow and try again. Why couldn't he just see the urgency in this? Why couldn't he see that mom and possibly his live were in danger? Callie was out there, right now, planning. And we had no idea where she was.

"Come on. You can sleep with me tonight." he says, unwrapping his arms from me and taking my hand.

"Okay." I say, very tired all of a sudden.

**A/N:**

**Short chapter! What did you guys think about the campfires exploding? Who do you think rigged them? **

**I hope everyone has a good rest of the day and I might just do a surprise update sometime before Saturday! :)**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

_"She _will_ burn. I've resented her since the day we met Apollo at that coffee shop. _I_ could have been his. _I_ could have had the demigod child. But no. She had to step in and take it all away from me. Everything. And then Apollo had to turn me into this monster." Callie says, pacing in what appeared to be a basement._

_She was wearing the same clothes I had last seen her in. Her white dress was ripped and dirty and her blonde hair was in shambles._

_"Well, I'll get my revenge soon. On all of them." she says, smiling grimly._

* * *

_"Michelle." Apollo whispered._

_I feel my head snap up and I realize I'm observing everything through my mother's body. I had no control over what she did or said though._

_She was sitting at the bar in the kitchen back at home. There was an ashtray in front of her and a bottle of Fire Ball whiskey by her delicate hand. There were no lights turned on, but the combined moonlight streaming through the windows and the golden glow emitting from Apollo was enough to light it up just enough to see._

_"What do you want?" she slurs._

_Apollo walks towards her, obviously being cautious. She eyes him as he approaches her and takes a seat across from her. He lays his hands on the granite counter and studies her with his brilliantly golden eyes._

_I could easily see why my mother had fallen for him. A man who loves music, poetry, books, and is as breathtakingly beautiful as an angel. His eyes light up the room, dancing with laughter and happiness. Well, not at the moment, but they usually do._

_"What has happened to you?" he asks, his voice practically dripping in sadness._

_My mother laughs, drunkenly, and gives him a look that obviously says, _"what_ hasn't _happened to me?"

_"Your children need you. You know that, right?" he questions, leaning a bit closer to her._

_"They don't need me. John's all grown up and Kyra is in control of herself. Trust me, they don't need me." she says, staring into the remains of her burned out cigarettes._

_"But they _do_ need you. I've brought someone here to help you remember that." he says._

_"Who?" she asks, a curious glint in her green eyes._

_"Mnemosyne, come on out." Apollo calls down the hall._

_A figure appears in the dark doorway connecting the kitchen to the hallway. As it steps into the moon and Apollo-lightened kitchen, I see that it's a woman._

_She looked to be about thirty, maybe thirty-five. Her hair was a pale silken blonde, almost like corn silk. It was long, falling to her lower back. She was tall and slim. Her skin was pale, probably the shade of milk. Her eyes were the color of blue violets and they glowed in the darkness of the room. She was wearing a long, white, Greek-style dress. A blue shawl, the shame shade as her eyes, was draped over her shoulders. There seemed to be a light blue glow around her as well._

_"Michelle, I'd like you to meet Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses." Apollo says, gesturing to the woman._

_Mnemosyne walks up to my mom and studies her face. She stands there, just looking at my mother, for a good five minutes._

_"Her mind has been severely damaged. I would assume it's one of the aftereffects of the certain sleeping trance she was under." Mnemosyne observes._

_"Can you do anything to help her?" Apollo asks, a sort of pleading in his eyes._

_"I will see." she says, turning back to face my mother again._

_She raises her hand and touches her thumb to my mom's forehead. There's a soft blue light and as it fades I see I'm not in my kitchen anymore._

_I was in a coffee shop. One I recognized actually. It was in downtown Baltimore. It was a small little building, quaint and cozy. I tried to remember the name of the place. It felt like it was just on the edge of my thoughts. Then I remembered. Charmington's. Mo and I came here all the time._

_I glance around, trying to find a familiar face. My eyes stop when I see the unforgettable face of Apollo. He was sitting across the room in a big, cushy chair. He was staring ahead, a dreamy look on his face._

_I follow his gaze and see, to my surprise, a teenage girl that looked like an older version of me. Same hair and eyes. Same skin and posture. It was quite weird._

_I realized with a shock that this was my mother. And that the other girl sitting across from her was Leah, before she was turned into an empousa and became Callie. She was actually quite beautiful. She had blonde hair that fell around her face in perfect ringlets, her eyes were bright blue and her skin was flawless._

_I see Apollo stand up and walk over to the table. He stops in front of the table and starts talking to my mom, completely ignoring Leah. My mom smiles warmly and pats the empty seat next to her, seeming to forget she was here with her best friend._

_The blue glow comes back and the scene changes again. This time it's just quick flashes of the times after that day. One was of my mom and Apollo holding hands and sitting on a bench by the harbor. It was obviously quite a few months later. They were wearing heavy jackets and jeans. The trees were bare and I could see some snowflakes falling from the sky._

_Another showed my mother, obviously pregnant, and holding a small, nine year old John's hand. I could tell that she had just adopted him from the orphanage from looking at old scrapbooks with pictures of me and John as we grew older. I could see the shadows under his eyes from sleepless nights. He was also very thin, almost as if he had rarely been fed. Apollo was nowhere in sight._

_The pictures kept coming faster and faster. The last one was of me, John, Lucas, and my mom. It was early summer and we were at the park, having a picnic under a big oak tree._

_The image fades and I'm back in my kitchen. My mother is sitting in her chair, completely motionless. Apollo was looking to her and then Mnemosyne and then back again._

_"What did you show her?" he asks, seeming almost fearful of what the answer would be._

_"Old memories. They were buried pretty deep within her mind. Almost as if she hadn't thought back on them in quite a while." Mnemosyne says._

_"Will she be alright?" Apollo asks, obviously anxious._

_Mnemosyne sighs, exasperated. "Yes. She'll be alright. It's just going to take a few minutes for the shock of me going into her mind to wear off." she says._

_"It would be best if we left to let her come back. Being here could interfere." Mnemosyne says._

_"We can't stay?" Apollo asks._

_"No, we can't. If we were here when she came back, it would be yet another shock and might damage her mind permanently." Mnemosyne says, obviously tired of the subject._

_Apollo sighs and looks at my mom one last , the two go out the kitchen's double, glass doors, closing them behind them and leaving my shell-shocked mom sitting in a dark kitchen._

* * *

_I reach out to touch her and she instantly stops screaming. She turns her head towards me, her green eyes full of agony._

_I stand there, paralyzed with horror, as she reaches out and brushes her hand against my cheek. Even though the flames were quickly consuming her, her skin was ice cold._

_"Run." she whispers._

_"No. You need me." I sob._

_"She's coming." she gasps, then goes still._

_A scream of desperation escapes my body as I fall to my knees. I watch her body slowly disintegrate into ashes, my eyes burning from the smoke and tears._

_I feel an agonizing pain between my shoulder blades. I scream even louder as the pain spreads all over my back. I'm aware of a warm wetness covering my back. One last stabbing pain and then I fall forward on a carpet of flames, not feeling anything anymore._

**A/N:**

**Surprise update! It was fun to write an all dream chapter! What did you guys think about Mnemosyne? From what I've read, she's the mother of the nine muses and the Titan of memory. And if you're wondering how the hell to pronounce her name.. nee-mos-uh-nee. That's how you say it. I myself had to look it up because I was at a loss. **

**So, I'm at work with my mom (yet again) and I'm bored out of my mind. Well, I was stuck on what to do in chapter 38 and so I took a break from writing and went on Deviantart and was about to start reading "Independent" by GingaAkam (she writes horror stories and makes art based off of horror stories. I wouldn't suggest reading her stuff unless you like to read horror stories). Anyway, I was about to start reading that and it just hit me! I love it when that happens. So as I writing this, I'm trying my hardest not to cry because it's an emotional scene and you figure stuff out and yea. It was one of those things that you hate to write but you just have to. I know, I know. I'm torturing you guys! You'll find out what I'm going on about soon enough! Just be patient, my grasshoppers. :)**

**Oh! On a completely random note, my white hi-tops were delivered to my house yesterday afternoon! I was surprised because I thought I had to pick them up at the store. It was a pleasant surprise. **

**Another reason why I'm at work with my mom is because we have a couple of children of Hermes in our neighborhood, if y'know what I mean. If you don't, these people are going into people's carports and taking things. Things that you don't use that often but when you need it, you'll realize it's gone. Our neighbors across the street had a weed-eater stolen and they called last night and said something else was taken as well. So my mom just felt a lot better that I was here with her instead of by myself at the house until five when she gets off.**

**I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the day and I'll talk to you guys later! **

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

I sit up in the bed, a little sweaty and my back aching. I look around the Hades cabin. It was pitch black with an exception of the small sliver of moonlight peeking through the gap in the curtains. Nico was beside me, sleeping like a baby. His black hair was tousled and he had a peaceful look on his face.

I glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand and see that it's three o'clock in the morning. I lay back down, burrowing inside the blankets and close to Nico's warm body. It was cold in the cabin, but that wasn't out of the ordinary. It was usually a bit chilly in here.

He turns over and wraps an arm around me, mumbling something about pancakes and daisies. Gods knew what he was dreaming about.

I think about the dreams I had just had. Callie had obviously meant business when she was talking to herself in the first dream.

The second one was just unsettling. I hadn't seen my mom like she was in those memories in a long time. I always wondered how in the world she was able to take care of a nine year old boy and a newborn at the same time. Great talent and strength, I guess.

And I wish I would stop having the damn burning house dream. I'm getting so sick of being forced to watch my mom burn to death. I find it weird that almost every time I have the dream, a little more gets added to the end of it, almost as if it's not quite finished each time I have it.

I sigh, trying to clear my head of it's million thoughts, and bury my face into Nico's bare chest and lay there. I think about going back to sleep but I don't want to if I'm just going to be awoken again by a nightmare. So, I just lay there, in the protection of his arms and the blankets.

* * *

The first rays of sunlight were filtering through the crack in the black-out curtains. I could hear the early morning sounds of camp. The pegasi fluttering their wings and neighing, the slight splashing sound as various fish popped up from beneath the lake.

Nico stirs but doesn't wake. Instead of the peaceful look he had had on his face earlier this morning, it was now looking a bit worried. There were creases etched in his forehead and beads of sweat were glistening on his body.

He tossed and turned a few times, mumbling words I couldn't understand. Finally though, I made out "must save" and "her". I had no idea whether "her" was me or Bianca or someone else.

After watching him feverishly toss and turn for a few minutes, I decide to wake him up. I start shaking his shoulder. He gasps and his eyes fly open. He lays on his back, stiff, as if he's paralyzed. His eyes dart around the room and they finally land on me.

He makes a choked sound in the back of his throat and sits up, facing me. He leans forward and wraps his arms around me, burying his face in the crook of my neck.

Now wasn't the time to ask about his dream so I just wrap my arms around him and sit there for a few minutes. He was breathing hard, like he had just run a long distance, and I could feel his heart racing.

"You're okay. You're okay." he breathes.

I ran my fingers through his disheveled hair and said, "I'm okay, Nico. It was just a dream."

"I-I had thought I had lost you." he chokes out.

"You want to tell me about it?" I ask, softly.

He pulls away and looks at me. He was still sweaty and looking a bit worried. His hands were visibly shaking. It made me wonder what horrible thing happened in his dream that had him this torn up. Usually even when the worst possible thing happens, he covers up his emotions because he doesn't want even _me_ to see how freaked out he actually is.

He takes a deep breath, steadying himself a little.

"I was in your house and it was on fire." he says.

My heart skips a beat but I remain calm on the outside. I patiently wait for him to continue.

"I was walking down the hall, trying to find you. I heard screaming from your mom's room. So I started running towards it. When I walked in, you were on your knees, sobbing, and staring at the bed. It was consumed in flames. I tried to run over to you but it was like I was running in place." he says. He looked mournful.

"It was just like the dream you've been having." he says.

"It sounds like it. What's weird is, I had the dream again last night." I say.

"You did?" he asks, a curious glint in his dark eyes.

I nod and he goes on, picking up where he left off.

"Well, just as I was starting to be able to move towards you, Callie came out of nowhere. I tried to scream at you, telling you to run. But I had gone mute." he says, looking as if he hated himself for saying the next part.

"She had a dagger in her hand, _your_ dagger. I don't know how she got it. She came up behind you and plunged it into your back. You were screaming so loudly. I wanted to do something. Help you, kill Callie. But I couldn't do anything. It was almost like I was watching a movie, helpless as my favorite character died right before my eyes." he says quietly, looking down at his hands.

I felt lightheaded now. Did this mean that this was actually going to happen or did the dream symbolize something else?

"She just kept on stabbing you in the back. She had this maniac grin on her face, like she was enjoying every damned minute of it. Her body was covered in ashes and your blood." he whispers.

"Nico." I breathe.

"I know." he groans, resting his forehead in his hands.

"Let's just look at it as a bad dream for right now. You said yourself that sometimes dreams are just dreams." I say, trying to calm, not only myself but, Nico.

"But what if it's not?" he asks, getting off the bed.

"I'm saying that that's all it is right now. Nothing has actually happened yet." I say.

He sighs, obviously not sold on the idea. He looks at me, his dark eyes looking right into mine. Whenever he looked at me like this, I felt like he was reading my every thought and emotion.

"C'mon. You need to get ready and out of here before everyone else wakes up." he says, tossing me my clothes from yesterday.

I sigh. "Alright, alright." I moan, sliding off the bed and heading towards the bathroom.

**A/N:**

**Yes, yes. I know. Nico was a tad OOC in the beginning, but after having a dream like that, who wouldn't be? The way I see it, we've never really seen a side like this to Nico. A lot of people see him as this tough, badass guy who shows no feelings to anyone. But if you think about it, he can't keep all those feelings just locked up inside forever. That would drive a person insane. So if you don't like the slightly emotional Nico I showed in this chapter, you can kiss my ass. On the other hand, if you ****_did_**** like this chapter, I'm overjoyed! **

**Okay, that little rant is over. **

**On another note, if you're a guest on this site and you leave a review in a story, asking a question, know that the author CAN'T answer guest reviews. Authors can only answer reviews if it's left by a person with an account. I encourage all you guests to get an account, that way we authors can answer all your ****_burning _****questions about the story or simply thank you guys for reviewing our stories. It's free and doesn't take that long. So if you've left a review as a guest, don't get all offended if it isn't answered. The author is not personally ignoring you or being an asshole. They just can't reply to it. **

**Oh yea. I forgot.. SURPRISE UPDATE! I bet you guys just love me for all these updates! I actually finished writing this story last night and I was soooooooo happy! 40 chapters in all! It's the longest story I've ever written and I am so proud of myself! I can start working on the next part to this little series. I went ahead and wrote the first chapter of it last night and I have a couple of pieces of chapters that I don't know where to put yet... In case you're wondering (and I'm sure you are) the next one is called "Salvation". **

**Back to this chapter though, what do you guys think it means that Nico had the burning house dream?**

**I'll talk to you guys again tomorrow! **

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"I'll see you after breakfast." I say, kissing Nico on the cheek.

"Okay." he says, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

I walk out the door and down the black steps. There was no one out yet. It was just past seven and breakfast wasn't until eight. Everyone always sleeps in till the last second.

I walk across the green and past the fountain. I run my fingers over the crystal clear water as I pass, making it ripple in the early morning sunlight.

As I get closer to the Apollo cabin, I see a shape slumped against the wall beside the door. I could tell, from where I was standing, by the black mess of curls and the tan skin that it was Mo.

I walk up the stone steps and plop down next to him. He starts and nearly smacks me in the face, doing his crazy ninja chops.

After about the fifth chop, he glances over and sees that it's me who awoke him. He stops his chopping and looks at me with his brilliantly violet eyes.

"Nico's?" he questions, arching an eyebrow.

"Yea." I say, feeling my cheeks heat up a little.

"I figured." he shrugs.

"Did you fall asleep waiting for me?" I ask.

"Yea. The porch is actually more comfortable than you'd think." he says, smirking.

I laugh and ask, "Did Scarlett and Danielle know you were out here the whole night?"

"Nah. I came over when I saw the lights go out in there. I didn't really feel like having them freak out on me." he says.

"It's not fun, I can tell you that." I say.

He chuckles and says, "So, about last night."

I hold up my hand, stopping him from going on. "I have no idea what the campfire thing was about. The Stolls or somebody else might have heard me telling you about that dream and thought it would be _hilarious_ to play a prank on me. If it was, it was cruel." I say.

"I don't think it was a prank, Ky. As soon as you left, everyone looked really scared and shocked. The Stolls even volunteered to help look for you." he says.

"Really?" I ask, surprised.

"Yea. It was just me, Nico, and Leo who went looking though. Piper, Jason, and a few others stayed behind to make sure everyone got back to the cabins okay." he says.

"Wow." I say, stumped.

"Then who do you think it was?" I ask, turning to look at him.

He shrugs. "I don't know. I'd assume it was Callie. I have no clue how she managed to do that with the fires but I'm pretty sure it was her doing." he says.

"I think you're right. Just need to figure out how she managed it." I say, propping my chin in my hand.

"We'll figure out how. We always do." he says.

**A/N:**

**Short chapter! Not much to really discuss. If you have any questions about the chapter though, I'll do my best to answer them! :)**

**I am so tired. Today was cleaning day at the studio. Two and a half hours of cleaning up dust and mud. I've taken ****_two _****showers today. One this morning, thinking that I wouldn't get ****_that_**** dirty, and then one when I got home because I thought wrong. I would have fared better just to not shower this morning and then take one when I got home. I was soaked with water and my jeans and shirt were covered in clay. Even my ****_hair _****felt disgusting. Bleh. But, I'm all clean now and much happier! **

**I hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend! **

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

After about thirty minutes, Mo left and went back to his cabin to get ready before breakfast. I got up and dusted my shorts off.

As soon as I opened the door, I was suffocated by two pairs of arms crushing the air out of me.

"Kyra! What happened?" Danielle asks.

"Where have you _been_?" Scarlett asks.

"Did you spend the night in the Hades cabin with Nico?" Danielle asks, smirking.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." I say, pushing them away from me.

"Slow down. One question at a time." I say, plopping down onto the sofa.

"Well then, answer the first question." Scarlett says, crossing her arms.

"Okay. What happened. You mean at the campfire last night?" I ask.

They both nod, eager to hear what I have to say.

I shrug. "I have no idea. Mo and Nico think it was Callie that rigged the fires. I'm not quite sure." I say.

"Okay. Where have you been all night?" Danielle asks.

"Hades cabin." I say, simply.

"I knew it!" Scarlett exclaims, looking pleased with herself.

"It's not like that was the _first_ time I've slept over." I say, smirking.

"No way!" they say, simultaneously.

"Totally." I say.

They both stand there, staring at me with wide eyes, in stunned silence. It was quite funny the effect of this was having on them.

Danielle was about to say something when my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. It was my mom was calling. I hesitate for a second then press the 'receive' button.

"Hello?" I answer.

"Kyra." she says.

"Mom. What do you want?" I ask, a cold edge to my voice.

"I-I'm sorry. I just wanted to let you know I'm sorry. I know I haven't been a very good parent lately. Someone dropped by and reminded me last night." she says. I knew exactly who had dropped by last night.

"When I saw the blood in the kitchen a few days ago, I wasn't quite sure if it was real or if I was just hallucinating. So I called John. He didn't believe me at first. I didn't really believe what I saw either. But when he came over and saw it for himself, he started freaking out. Then we couldn't find you anywhere and-it was a nightmare." she says, her voice trembling slightly.

I'm silent for a moment before I reply. "I know. I just couldn't handle being with you anymore. It wouldn't have been good for me." I say, quietly.

"I still have the urges to get drunk but it's lessening. Slowly. But it's getting better." she says.

"That's great!" I say, a spark of hope coming to life.

"I don't want you to come back to live with me until I'm completely rehabilitated though. I don't want this mess to happen again. If I'm still not better by the end of the summer when you come home, I want you to live with John. We've already talked this over and he's agreed to it." she says.

"That sounds perfect, mom. I'm so happy that you're getting better." I say, smiling.

"Me too, honey." she says.

"I'll talk to you later, mom. I need to go eat breakfast." I say.

"Okay, Kyra. Love you." she says.

My breath catches in my throat. It had been so long since I had heard those words in my mother's voice. It had been so long since she had told me.

"Love you too, mom." I manage to choke out, holding back tears.

I hear the line go silent and I take my phone away from my ear. I take a deep breath and put the palms of my hands over my eyes. It was going to be okay. My mother was getting back to her normal self and we could be happy again. Maybe Lucas would even come back, who knew?

**A/N:**

**Happy Tuesday! What did you guys think about Michelle's apology? I think I might upload another chapter later on today because we've still got 12 more chapters before this story is finished. I've already written 6 of the chapters for Salvation! I'll probably lengthen some of those chapters though because some of them are really short. :)**

**So how was everyone's Sunday and Monday? I didn't really do much on Sunday but yesterday me and my mom went to Hasting's and Target after I got finished with school. Then we came back home and I wrote for a while :)**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan

* * *

"Kyra, are you okay?" Scarlett asks.

"Yea. I'll meet you guys at the mess hall in a few minutes." I say.

"Okay. C'mon, Scarlett." Danielle says, swinging the door open and stepping out onto the porch.

I hear the door close and I collapse onto my bed. I hoped my mother could get better. I really wanted to be happy again. Truly happy.

Just as I'm about to walk out and to the mess hall, my phone starts ringing again. I look at the screen to see an unfamiliar number.

"Hello?" I answer.

There's a slight giggle on the other end then, "Your family will burn, Kyra Hale. Starting with her."

The line goes dead and I drop the phone. Can you say, instant panic attack? I had to tell someone about this. I had to get back to Baltimore as soon as I could.

I pick the phone up off the ground and go to John's number. He was probably getting really tired of seeing my name pop up on his phone screen but I didn't give a fuck. This was urgent.

"Yes, Kyra?" he answers, sounding weary.

"You need to go get mom. Right now." I say, hearing the panic in my own voice.

"What happened this time?" he sighs.

I explain the phone call I had just gotten, my words tumbling out of my mouth.

"You see? You _need_ to go get her." I say, trying to get him to see the urgency in the situation.

"Kyra, it was probably just a prank call." he sighs.

"But it wasn't! The dreams and the campfire last night and what Apollo told me-"

"Wait, hold up. What about the campfire and what did Apollo tell you?" he asks.

"Were you not listening last night when I called you?" I ask.

"Kyra, I was half asleep. I don't even remember hanging up last night, much less what you were talking about." he says.

I sigh then quickly go over who Callie actually is, or used to be, and what went down between her, mom, and Apollo. Then I tell him, once again, about the message from the campfires last night.

"Oh. Maybe it wasn't a prank call." he says, his voice small.

"Duh! Now you see why I've been freaking out!" I say, exasperated.

"Yea. I'll go get mom and make sure she's safe. I'll call you when she's with me." he says.

I hear his car keys jingle in the background and I know he's actually taking me seriously, for once.

"Okay. Call me if anything happens." I say, walking towards the cabin door.

"I will, I will." he says.

I end the call and pocket the phone. Even though I knew John was on his way to get mom, I still had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

**A/N:**

**Here's another chapter for you guys... Just 'cause you're all awesome and 28 was a bit short... Well, this one is actually _shorter _but oh well. Two chapters in one day! I bet you guys love me!**

**So it's getting a bit more interesting... The next chapter is a lot longer! Everything just gets better and better. I can't wait for you guys to read 33! OMG, it gets so intense after that! :)**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"Everything alright, Ky?" Danielle asks.

"Uh, yea. Just got a little emotional when my mom called." I say, a slight tremor in my voice.

"Considering everything you've been through in the past year, I can't blame you." Scarlett says, digging into her strawberry and honey oatmeal.

"Yea. You deserve a break after all the craziness." Danielle says.

I feel a light tap on my shoulder and I turn around. Mo and Nico were standing there. Nico had a small smile playing at his lips and Mo's eyes were shining.

"We were going to go down to the arena to train. Wanna come?" Mo asks.

"Sure." I say, taking one last drink of my orange juice.

"Want to go to the range and shoot some arrows later?" I ask, standing up.

"Yea. We'll meet you there at about three." Scarlett says.

"Alright. See ya later!" I say, walking away from the table and out of the mess hall.

* * *

As the three of us walked to the sword arena, I told them about the phone calls I had gotten earlier. I started with my mom and her good news of trying to rehabilitate back to her old self. They were both really happy about that. Then I tell them about the unfamiliar number that called me. That wiped the smiles off their faces.

I was certain it had been Callie. It had to be. She's the one that's causing all this and also the one who's out to get my family. I was starting to believe that Nico and Mo were right. That she was the one that somehow rigged the fires last night.

"So do you know if John's gotten her yet?" Nico asks.

"He hasn't called. If he still hasn't in an hour, I'm calling him. I'm worried about her. Both of them, actually." I say.

We had reached the arena and we started dragging out the practice dummies. They weren't very heavy, just awkward to hold. A few of them had their burlap heads sliced off from previous training sessions.

"One thing bothers me though." I say.

"What?" Mo asks.

"If Callie is actually my mom's old friend, and she saw her being turned into an empousa, wouldn't she recognize her? And if she does, why didn't she tell me about it the first time she saw Callie? I mean, for gods sake, she _married_ John!" I say, throwing my hands up in the air.

"That's a valid point. You might wanna ask her about that." Nico says, stabbing a dummy in the stomach.

"Unless Callie somehow found a way to change her appearance like she did when she was pretending to be Jazzy. But shouldn't my mom have been able to see her for what she was? Apollo himself said that she had been able to see through the Mist." I say, hitting a dummy in the head with an arrow.

Mo stops and turns to look at me. "That's something I hadn't thought about." he says.

"What?" I ask.

"Your mom being able to see through the Mist. I mean, she _should_ have been able to see all that." he says.

"It can become harder to see through the Mist as you age. Percy's mom is able to see through it but not as well as she used to." Nico says.

"But Callie had been around the house almost every day for two years." I say, throwing my dagger and striking the dummy's shoulder.

"I don't know, Kyra. You'll just have to ask her." Nico says.

"I guess you're right." I sigh.

* * *

I took my confusion and anger and sadness, and all the other emotions running through my mind, out on the dummy I was using. The poor thing was just a pile of burlap and straw by the time I was done with it.

I stood back and admired my work on the thing. Nico and Mo's dummies didn't look that different from mine.

"I had a couple of weird dreams last night." I say.

"Oh, boy. More dreams to decipher." Mo says, sitting down on a bench and taking a swig of water.

"The first one was of Callie. She was pacing back and forth in a basement. She sounded like she had lost it and finally gone completely crazy. It began with her saying that "she" would burn. I assume "she" is my mom. Then she started talking about how she should have been the one Apollo picked, not my mom. And how she should have had the demigod child, not my mom. Then she said she'd get her revenge on all of us." I say, having lain down on the ground, staring up at the bright blue sky.

"Wow. That's heavy." Mo says, running his fingers through his sweat-dampened curls.

"Yea. I'm pretty sure she's gone off the edge now." Nico says.

"In the second dream, my mom was in the kitchen and she was drinking and smoking and Apollo came in. My mom was obviously drunk but she recognized him. He talked to her for a few minutes, telling her that me and John needed her. She denied it, saying that we were doing just fine without her." I say.

"Then, when he figured out he wasn't getting anywhere with her, he called in Mnemosyne." I say.

"The mother of the muses?" Nico gasps, his eyes widening.

"Yep. Well, Mnemosyne came up to her and looked at her. Just looked at her, for a good five minutes. She finally said that her mind had been severely damaged from the sleeping trance. It was one of the aftereffects." I explain.

"Then she touched my mom's forehead with her thumb and this blue light came out of nowhere. It looked like it was coming from the place where Mnemosyne's thumb and my mom's forehead met. Anyway, the scene in the kitchen faded and I was in the coffee shop where Apollo met my mom." I say.

"It was the exact day they met. It was exactly like Apollo described it. I even recognized the coffee shop. It was Charmington's, Mo." I say, glancing up at him.

"After I watched that, it was just like pictures of memories. Little glitches. The first one was of my mom and John. She had probably just gotten John from the orphanage and she was obviously pregnant with me. Then the last one was of the four of us having a picnic. The kitchen came back into view after that and my mom was basically stunned still. They left her after that." I say.

"Whoa. They met at Charmington's? We used to go there all the time!" Mo says, smiling at the memories of the countless times we had gone to the quaint café.

"After that dream, it was the burning house again. I'm getting so sick of seeing that one. And what's weird, every time I have it, more is added to the end of it. Last night, my mom told me to leave and I told her that I wasn't going to. Then she said, "she's here" and then she crumbled to ashes. The next thing I knew, there was a gut-wrenching pain between my shoulder blades. It got worse and spread all over my back. I woke up after I collapsed face-first onto the floor in the dream." I say.

Nico had gone paler and paler as I had described the last dream. Mo was looking a bit horrified.

"That's like the dream I had last night." Nico says.

"I know. That's what I was thinking when you told me about it this morning. But I didn't want to freak you out any more than you already were, so I didn't tell you." I say.

"Wait. So you two had the same dream within the same night?" Mo asks, glancing from Nico to me.

"Yea. She was experiencing it and I was observing it. The pain in her back was Callie stabbing her. I couldn't do anything to stop it." Nico says, looking like he was going to be sick just thinking about it.

I take out my phone and see that it's almost three. I hop to my feet and dust myself off. I grab my dagger from the place it was laying on the ground and stick it into it's sheath strapped around my thigh.

"Well, I need to go meet Scarlett and Danielle. I'll see you guys after dinner tonight." I say.

I kiss Nico and wave to Mo. I walk out of the arena and towards the path leading to the range.

**A/N:**

**Long chapter! And yes, I did my research and Charmington's is an actual cafe in Baltimore! Pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I kinda want to go there now...**

**So, a couple of days ago, my mouse pad on my laptop stopped working. I nearly had a panic attack because how the fuck am I supposed to use a computer whose cursor doesn't work? Well, after turning it off a couple of times and getting more and more freaked out, I remembered my little USB wireless mouse. I turned it on and viola! I can use it again! **

**So for the past two days now, I've been drooling over the new MacBook Pro. I want that laptop soooooooooooo bad! Sadly though, it's over $1000 dollars and I don't have that kind of money just laying around. Damn you Apple! Why must your products be so fucking expensive?! **

**I'm going to try and save up my money so by the time I ****_do _****get enough, my laptop should be about burnt out. **

**So how had everybody's week been? Mine has been pretty uneventful. I went to class today and one of the artists that was there gave me a Henna tattoo! Omg, it's so cool! I wish I could show you guys a picture of it. Since I can't, I'll just describe it as best as I can... It's on the palm of my right hand and it's got a small, five petal flower on the bottom left of it. Branching out of the flower are vines and leaves. One my thumb is this sort of swirl thing and then four dots going up my finger tip. Then on my pointer finger, there's this cool vine thing with leaves and dots here and there around it. And that's about as best as I can describe it! **

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**

**P.S. **

**If you guys could encourage me to ****_not _****spend all my money before I save up enough for my MacBook, that would be wonderful!**

**P.P.S. **

**You guys are so amazing with the reviews and I couldn't ask for better people to read my stories! Love you guys! :)**


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"I'm going to ask Chiron if we can alternate nights where we sing. Like maybe one night the Hermes cabin will tell ghost stories and the next night we sing." I say, aiming an arrow.

"That sounds like a great idea!" Scarlett says, releasing an arrow and hitting the bulls eye.

"What time is it anyway? I'd like to freshen up before dinner and the campfire." Danielle asks, lowering her bow.

I dig into my pocket and see that it's almost five.

"Whoa. We've been here for almost two hours!" I say, putting the phone back in my pocket.

"Well, I'd say we could call it a day. We'll get more training tomorrow since it's the first official day of camp." Danielle says.

"I agree with that plan. I want to shower off real quick then I'm going to talk to Chiron." I say, dropping my bow and arrows and then feeling my sun pendant fall against my neck again.

"C'mon. Let's get going." I say.

* * *

"John? Have you gotten mom yet?" I ask, taking a clean pair of socks out of my trunk and sitting on the bed.

"She was at work. I stopped by and told her all that had happened but she didn't seem too concerned." he says.

"But she _should_ be!" I say.

"I think she's right, Kyra. I mean, do you even _know_ where Callie is right now?" he asks.

"No and that's the point! She could be in town _right_ _now_, drenching the house in gasoline and just waiting till mom gets home to burn it to the ground." I say, not believing what I was hearing.

"I don't think it's something you need to worry yourself about right now, Kyra. If she's not freaking out about it, I'm not going to either." he says, then hangs up.

* * *

"So what did Chiron say?" Scarlett asks as we head to the campfire.

"He said he'd think about it for a few days and let me know when everyone else gets to camp." I say.

"That's music to my ears. Maybe he'll say yes." Danielle says.

"Hey ladies." Nico says, jogging to catch up with us.

"Hey Nico." Scarlett says.

He intertwines his fingers with mine and kisses the top of my hand.

"I swear, you look more beautiful every time I see you." he says.

I feel my cheeks heat up and I smile. "What's gotten you in such a good mood?" I ask.

"You want a list?" Nico asks, giving me his best boyish grin.

I laugh and say, "Just name off a few things."

"Well, seeing you, for one. Percy and Annabeth get here tomorrow. A shower and a nap before dinner. Dinner." he says, counting them off on his fingers.

I smile and shake my head. Of course food was one of the things. He would probably be depressed for a whole week if he missed _one_ meal.

"So what are we performing tonight?" Scarlett asks.

"I haven't thought about it. Have we done any Fun. yet?" I ask.

"Nope." Danielle says.

"Okay. Then let's do The Gambler, Carry On, It Gets Better, and… Any other suggestions?" I ask.

"How about we do some Coldplay too?" Scarlett says.

"Clocks and Fix You?" Danielle asks.

"Wonderful! Then we'll end it with a couple of camp songs. I think it's probably a campfire regulation that you have to sing at least _one_ camp song." I say.

We had reached the grounds and Nico started walking towards where the others were sitting. Scarlett, Danielle, and I headed up on stage and started setting up.

Tonight was going to be fun. That is if the campfires didn't explode again. Hopefully they wouldn't.

**A/N:**

**John is just all over the place on where he stands on the situation at hand! Gah! Honestly, you'd think he would have leaned to trust Kyra's instincts by now...**

**So I'm finally rereading the PJ series, after saying I was going to do so about a month ago... I can't help but smile while reading the first book because here's little 12 year old Percy just now figuring out the way of the world.**

**Last night I went over to my brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner. I must say, I'm soooooo happy he didn't take that job out of state. I never realize just how much I would have missed them until I spend a few hours with them. Then it's like I don't want to leave their house at all.**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngleo25**

**P.S.**

**I'm going to upload another chapter in a few minutes! **


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

Thankfully, everything was fine at the campfire the night before. I did get a few glances but nothing more than that. I was still angry at John for not making mom see any sense though.

Scarlett, Danielle, and I were just finishing cleaning up the cabin for inspection when the door opened. Keegan was standing in the doorway, holding a huge duffle bag.

He looked taller than he had been last year and his dark blonde hair had gotten shaggier. He already had a nice tan going for it only being the beginning of the summer.

"Hey Keegs." Danielle says.

"Hey guys. I didn't know you were here already, Kyra." he says, setting his bag on top of his trunk.

"Yea. I decided to come down a few days early." I say.

"Gotcha. Anything I can do?" he asks.

"Nah. We were just finishing up. Archery is in an hour. You might want to get ready for that." I say.

"Okay. I'll meet you guys there. Oh, and Kyra." he says, turning to me.

"Yea?" I ask.

"Percy and Annabeth are here and they wanted to talk to you. I told them that you'd meet them up at the Big House." he says.

"Okay. Thanks Keegan. I'll see you guys in a little while." I say, heading out the door.

* * *

"Kyra!" Annabeth says, smiling and waving at me from the Big House's porch.

I wave back and walk up the stairs. Percy and Annabeth were sitting in the rocking chairs, watching Mr. D and Chiron play a game of pinochle.

When I reach them, they both hug me and then we all sit down.

"Keegan said you two wanted to talk to me?" I ask.

"Yea. We just wanted to know how you've been. The few times we've seen Nico he mentioned some, ah, family issues." Annabeth says.

"A little bit more than just "family issues"." I grumble.

"You have time to explain?" Percy asks, leaning back in his rocking chair.

"Yea. I've got an hour before archery." I say.

I start my long and sad story, once again. I try to skim over the really bad parts but that was a bit tricky. Chiron and Mr. D were acting as if they weren't listening, but I knew they were.

It felt as if this had all happened years ago. Not just five _days_ ago. I didn't even say that the scars on my arm were from a rogue harpy. I told them the truth about them.

When I was done, both of them were speechless and wide-eyed. I wasn't quite sure what exactly was running through their heads. Maybe they were disgusted with me because I had cut myself. Or maybe they felt sympathetic for me.

Before I know what's happening, I'm being suffocated by Annabeth giving me a bone-crushing hug. This was ten times worse than Mo's bear hug.

"Oh, Kyra." she says.

I loosen up, getting over the shock of Annabeth hugging me and I hug her back.

She finally lets me go and I see that her storm gray eyes look a bit misty. Percy had a sad look on his normally happy face.

"It's all good now though. I'm okay. Really." I say.

Their eyes dart down to my arm and then back up to my face. I had even told them about Apollo's little visit and him telling me about my scars. They were still there, fading slowly, but they were still there. That told them that I was, in fact, _not_ all okay.

**A/N:**

**Ahh. First official day of camp. I wonder what it will bring and what trouble our characters will get into... You'll find out Saturday!**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"I'll meet you guys at the stables. I need to drop by the cabin and get my phone." I say.

Archery had just gotten out and Danielle, Scarlett, Keegan, and I and all of the Athena cabin were filing out of the range.

"Okay. See you in a few minutes!" Danielle says, pulling Scarlett and Keegan along the path with her and elbowing her way past a few Athena kids.

I let the rest of the kids go past me and then I start making my way down the path and towards the cabins.

* * *

As soon as I step into the Apollo cabin, I know someone else is here. I don't know how I know, I just do.

I unsheathe my dagger and make my way slowly into the dimly lit cabin.

All of a sudden, someone places their hands over my eyes. I give a sigh of relief because I know the hands. They were hands I had held, felt run through my hair and touch my face. It was Nico.

I turn around, smiling at him. He had obviously just gotten done helping instruct the beginners sword class. He was a tad sweaty and glowing with happiness.

"Can you be a wonderful boyfriend and help me find my phone?" I ask, leaning closer and looking up at him.

"Well, I can do that. But it will cost ya." he says, a mischievous smile playing at his lips.

"And what would that be?" I ask.

"I think you know." he says.

He then lunges and scoops me up, tickling me. He walks over to the couch and gently sets me down, all the while tickling me.

"Stop! Please, stop!" I gasp, trying to slap his hands away.

"No! I've got you right where I want you!" he says, laughing an evil laugh.

We roll around on the couch for a few minutes, me trying to find a ticklish spot on him and not succeeding and he finding every ticklish spot there was on me.

After a few minutes, I hear a buzzing sound and then John's ring tone. Nico stops the tickling madness and I slide off the couch and over to where the music was coming from.

I dig around through the blankets on my bed and finally manage to find it. I answer it on the last ring.

"Hey, John." I say, still a bit breathless.

"Kyra! You were so right! Callie, she-she's here. She's here in Baltimore. I was able to get away but I don't think I can hide much longer. I couldn't find mom. She wasn't at work but I don't think Callie has found her yet." he says this all extremely fast, almost to the point where I couldn't understand him.

"Whoa. She's there?" I ask.

"Yes! I'm at the house and-"

"Get out of the house! John, you need to get out of there _right_ _now_. Callie could be-" I'm cut off by the sound of shattering glass and John yelling.

"John! John!" I scream into my phone.

I hear a clatter and then nothing else. I end the call and put the phone in my pocket.

"Kyra, what happened?" Nico asks, suddenly very serious.

"Callie is in Baltimore and I think she found John. No. I _know_ she found John. Nico, I need to get there." I say, pacing back and forth.

"Okay. We'll go talk to Chiron and Rachel then-"

"No. We don't have time for that. For all I know, Callie could have already killed John by now." I say, starting to panic.

"Then let's go." he says, his face determined.

We run out the cabin and towards the woods. Why did I have to have a psycho monster after my family?

**A/N:**

**Yes, yes. Surprise update, blah blah blah. The truth is, I just couldn't wait for you guys to read this chapter! I was laughing pretty much the whole time while writing the tickling scene. **

**So, I shouldn't be allowed to even ****_look _****at band merch whilst trying to save up for a MacBook. God, I want to buy ****_everything!_**** I must be strong. I must be strong. If you didn't think it was possible to fangirl over band merch, you thought wrong. It is ****_so _****possible. I swear, while I'm scrolling through the MCR and GD merch stores, I'm literally almost squealing the whole time... Yeaa, that's how bad it is...**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**

**P.S.**

**Hope you enjoyed the surprise update! Sorta just left it hanging there... You'll find out what happens next on Saturdaaay! God, if you think ****_this _****is intense, you don't even wanna know what happens next.**


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan

* * *

We tumble out of the shadows. I look around and see we're at the park in my neighborhood. I start running in the direction of my house. I hear Nico's light tread right behind me.

As soon as I turn onto my street, I see flames through the windows of my house. Black smoke was seeping out from behind the door. I inhale sharply, knowing that the dream was true now.

Just as I'm about to sprint towards the house, a few shadows pass over my head. I look up to see four pegasi in the air. One was pitch black and I recognized it as Blackjack, Percy's pegasus. Another didn't appear to even _be_ a pegasus. It looked to be made out of a lightning filled storm cloud. The other two were ones I had seen in the stables at camp, but didn't remember the names of.

They all dive down and I see Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Mo, and Leo. Mo looked a little green in the face.

"What are you guys doing here?" I ask.

"Following you. Mo saw you and Nico leave and figured something had happened here. He came to us and we decided that you might need help." Leo says, sliding off of his pegasus' back.

"What I _need_ is to get in my house." I say, gesturing to the burning house.

Percy was about to say something when the windows exploded, sending hot glass flying everywhere. We all hit the sidewalk, covering our heads.

I feel a few shards of it cut my arms but I don't care. I hop to my feet and start running towards the house while the others are still on the ground.

Just as I get to the door, I hear Nico scream my name. I don't turn around. I just ignore him and charge in through the flames.

* * *

**Nico's POV**

She went in. I tried running after her but three sets of strong hands gripped me, holding me back. I struggled to get loose but they overpowered me. Leo stands in front of me and looks at me.

"I'll go in after her. I can't burn, remember?" he says, holding up his hand which burst into flames.

I look at him for a millisecond but it was the longest millisecond of my life. Finally, I nod. He bolts to the house and runs through the open front door.

I stand there on the sidewalk, feeling helpless. It killed me not being able to go in after her. I hated feeling helpless. Kyra was in there. _My_ Kyra. She was probably in her mom's room right now, trying to help her or watching as the flames consumed her. Or she was being stabbed in the back by Callie.

Gods, I hated that woman. Or whatever she was now. More like an insane monster of a woman.

I see Percy walk a little closer to the house. He was about twenty feet away. He raises his hands and water appears out of nowhere and starts spraying through the broken windows.

I hear Mo's voice as he calls the fire department. Jason, Piper, and Annabeth were behind me, watching as the flames slowly started creeping onto the flower beds, consuming everything in it's way.

I see movement through the doorway and my full attention focuses on it. I was surprised that I was actually able to keep my attention on it, considering I was so jittery I could barely stay in one spot for too long.

I see Leo emerge from the doorway, coughing and covered in soot as black as Tartarus. In his arms was Kyra. She looked even worse than he did. My legs nearly turned to jelly at the sight of her not moving.

I snap out of it and run towards Leo, not giving Jason, Piper, or Annabeth a chance to grab me.

I reach Leo in seconds. Kyra looked even worse up close. Pretty much all of her exposed skin was burned red and heat blisters were covering her arms. She was unconscious and her head was tilted back.

I noticed Leo had blood on his hands. My stomach instantly lurches. She had been stabbed.

He gently hands her to me. I hear the sirens of fire trucks in the distance, coming closer and closer by the second.

"I'm taking her back to camp. Chiron can treat her there." I say, glancing around to find a shadow.

No one protests or tries to stop me as I run towards the first one I spot. I hold Kyra as gently as I can, trying not to squeeze her too tightly or bounce her up and down. Her skin was burning hot and she was moaning slightly, obviously starting to regain consciousness.

I slip through the shadows and the coldness envelopes us. She shivers then settles down as she adjusts to the iciness. We're soon out of it and behind the Big House.

I was praying to all the gods I knew of that she would be okay. She had to be. She was everything to me. I wouldn't have anything to live for if she left.

**A/N:**

**Goddammit! I hate it when this site has fucking glitches! Gahh! Anyway, the only reason the chapters will ever be in Nico's POV are because Kyra is unconscious... Or worse... **

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

**Nico's POV**

I ran around to the front of the Big House, Kyra moaning louder in my arms. I run up the steps and into the house. A couple of campers were inside. They stopped what they were doing when I came in with Kyra and gawked at me.

"What are you standing there for? Go get Chiron!" I say, almost hysterically.

They bolt past me to find Chiron. I set Kyra down on the couch and she opens her eyes a little.

"Nico." she whispers, a tear rolling down her burned cheek.

"I'm here, Ky. It's going to be okay. Chiron is coming and he's going to fix you right up. The pain will go away soon." I say, taking her outstretched hand.

"John." she says, squinting her eyes shut.

"What about John?" I ask.

"He-he was there." she says, then passes out again.

I exhale and put my head in my hands. I hear hurried footsteps and what sounds like horse hooves on the porch. I look out the open door to see the two campers that had been here before and Chiron. He waves them off and comes inside.

"What happened?" he asks, taking in the sight of Kyra.

I explain what happened at the house as fast as I can, stumbling over a few words as they rushed from my mouth. Chiron stayed calm throughout the whole explanation and looked through the medicines he had with him.

"Well, we're going to need to take her to the infirmary. Mr. D would not have it if I treated her on his couch." he says.

I slide my hands under Kyra and gently lift her back up. I cradle her in my arms, her head resting against my shoulder. Chiron walks out the door and I follow closely behind.

* * *

"You may go now." Chiron says, mixing some glowing liquids together in a small bowl.

"No. I'm staying right here with her." I say, crossing my arms.

Chiron gives me a long, hard look. I guess he finally understands that I'm not going anywhere because he sighs and gestures for me to sit down in the chair beside the bed.

"We might have to cut some of her clothes off." he says.

"I'll handle it." I say.

He raises an eyebrow but doesn't argue. He leaves and I take some scissors from one of the cabinets. I begin the process of cutting her shirt off, covering her with a light sheet when I get it off.

She was going to be so pissed about the shorts. They were one of her favorite pair and now they were ruined. I'd get her a new pair. Although, she might not _want_ a new pair.

"Okay Chiron." I say once I'm done.

He clops back in and looks at the burned and cut clothes in a heap on the floor. He shakes his head and gets to work.

* * *

**Kyra's POV**

I drifted in and out of consciousness. Most of the time when I was conscious, I was in intense pain. Usually the pain knocked me back out within a few seconds.

While I was unconscious, visions haunted me. Visions of the house, what I found inside, Callie's laugh as she stabbed me with my own dagger. It was all so horrible.

But the whole time, conscious or not, I felt strangely safe. Almost as if someone was watching over me, making sure no more harm came to me.

One of the times I came back, my vision was blurry and I had a pounding headache. I saw three dark shadows hovering over me and I felt a pressure in my hand. They were whispering but I couldn't make sense of what they were saying. I tried to figure out where exactly I was but I passed out again before I could figure it out. All the other times I woke up after that were about the same.

The last time I awoke and stayed awake, I could actually _see_ and the headache was gone. The intense pain I had felt before was gone as well. I carefully moved around the bed I was laying in, making sure I was alright to move.

Nothing hurt so I took that as a good sign. I looked around and saw I was in the camp infirmary. It was fairly dark outside, like the sun had just gone down. I strained my eyes to see because the infirmary was very dimly lit.

I make out a figure slumped in the chair beside my bed and I lean closer to see who it is.

"Nico?" I ask.

I was horrified at the sound of my voice. It sounded like I had eaten glass and then gargled some sand for good measure. That was probably the only thing that hurt like hell; my throat.

The figure stirs but doesn't wake. I was positive it was Nico now. He was one of the heaviest sleepers I knew.

I grab my pillow and throw it at him. He jerks up, startled, and looks around. His eyes finally land on me and he makes a sound at the back of this throat that was a mixture of a cry of joy and a relieved groan.

He rushes to me and before I know it, his arms are around me and he's cradling me. I bury my face into his shirt, inhaling his familiar scent of freshly fallen rain and Old Spice.

I cling to him tightly as he holds me. We just sit there on the bed and hold each other for gods know how long. Just sitting in the dim infirmary and rocking each other back and forth.

**A/N:**

**Well, she's awake and well! (For the most part, that is). The ending was just sorta fluff but I think it fit in well. Five more chapters and then it's on to Salvation! I'm a bit bored for I decided to update!**

**At the moment, I'm watching "The Birdcage". In the past couple of days I've had a lot of heavy information dropped on me and it's gotten me a bit down. None of this was helped by having a confusing nightmare last night... I figured the best way to remedy this was to laugh my ass off at Robin Williams. **

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"How're you doing?" Mo asks.

I had made Nico leave the infirmary to get some rest about an hour ago. Apparently I've been here, unconscious most of the time, for two days. Nico had been sitting in the chair beside my bed the whole time, refusing to leave me, even to eat.

"Better. Has anyone heard from my mom or John?" I ask, feeling hopeful.

Mo shakes his head, looking sad.

I sigh, sitting back. I don't remember much from the fire. Just blistering hotness and flames everywhere. I remember coughing on the black smoke and trying to find my way to my mom's bedroom. I remembered feeling the pain of my dagger stabbing through my back. It felt like I was forgetting something though. Like maybe I was suppressing something important.

I hear horse hooves and my head turns toward the entryway. Chiron comes in, a bow and quiver slung behind him. He must have just gotten done with archery practice.

"Oh, good. You're awake." he says, smiling warmly at me.

"I see Mr. di Angelo has left." he says, raising an eyebrow.

"I made him. He was sleep and food deprived." I say, chuckling.

"Ah." he says, smiling and shaking his head.

"You should be okay to walk around now. Just take it easy. You still might get a little lightheaded if you move too fast." he says.

"Thank the gods. I'm so sick of sitting in this bed." I say, scooting out from under the light sheet.

Annabeth had come right after I had fully woken up, bringing me a fresh, non-burnt shirt and shorts. Surprisingly, my beloved Converse had been unharmed in the fire. I was overjoyed when she had showed them to me. She had shooed away Nico and Percy and helped me change. I had felt a lot better, being fully clothed and not in a thin, hospital-like gown.

"Chiron." I say, getting to my feet and Mo helping me stand.

"Yes, Kyra?" he asks.

"Is it normal to suppress or block out a memory after something traumatic like that?" I ask.

"Yes. Quite common, actually. Usually the memory comes back. It can take up to a few days to years to un-suppress a traumatic memory." he says.

"Oh. Thanks, Chiron." I say.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get back to the archery range. I left a couple of the satyrs in charge of the younger Hermes children while I checked up on you." he says, already galloping away.

**A/N:**

**To start off today's A/N: HOLY FUCK! THIS STORY HAS 58 REVIEWS! THANK YOU GUYS SOOOOOOO MUCH!**

**Okay, I'm fine now. A bit of a short chapter. I'm going to upload 37 in a few minutes as well! **

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	37. Chapter 37

**Chapter 37**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

"You need anything?" Mo asks as we walk into the Apollo cabin.

"Nah, I'm fine." I say, yawning.

Even though I had been asleep for about two days, I was still pretty exhausted.

"Okay. I'll see you later today." he says, smiling and closing the door behind him.

I lay down on my bed and doze off, the sound of birds chirping and the slight rumble of the lava wall in the distance.

* * *

I'm awoken by whispers in the cabin. I squint open my eyes to see that it's much darker than it had been when I had first dozed off. The whispers were coming from the bathroom.

I shakily get out of bed and onto my feet. I shuffle over to the bathroom to find Danielle and Scarlett. They hear the door creak open and turn towards me.

Their faces light up with smiles and then rush towards me, engulfing me in suffocating hugs. I finally manage to untangle myself from them, trying to get my breath back.

"Did we wake you?" Scarlett asks.

"Yea. But that's okay. I wanted to get up and eat dinner anyway." I say.

"Good! Keegan is playing guitar tonight and I'll sing. I don't think you're quite up to being on stage yet." Danielle says, eyeing me.

"I'm fine!" I protest.

"No, you're not. You're still shaky. You need to take it slow for a few more days before you even _consider_ going up on stage." Danielle says, poking her stick of eyeliner at me.

"Fine." I sigh, my shoulders slumping.

"Well, now that we've gotten that cleared up, I'd say we're ready to go." Scarlett says, tossing her mascara bottle into her makeup bag.

"Where _is_ Keegan?" I ask, looking around the cabin for him.

"Oh. He said he'd meet us at the mess hall. Said he had something he needed to do before dinner." Danielle says, shrugging her shoulders.

"He's probably showing off for the Aphrodite cabin." Scarlett says, rolling her eyes.

"That'd be my guess." Danielle says, shaking her head.

They both grab one of my arms and drag me out of the cabin. It's like they thought I couldn't even _walk_ on my own. This was going to be a long couple of days.

**A/N:**

**There you go, my lovelies! A bit of sisterly love from Danielle and Scarlett :) Poor Kyra. I'm sure she despises being treated like a baby, having everyone wanting to do everything for her.**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	38. Chapter 38

**Chapter 38**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

I thought it was going to be a long couple of _days_ with everyone checking up on me and making sure I was alright and generally treating me like a helpless baby. Oh, I was so wrong. It went on for a _whole_ _week_ after the fire.

Danielle, Scarlett, Keegan, and I had just finished dinner and were heading down to the campfire grounds. It had gotten progressively darker as we had gone deeper into the woods, following the path.

As I said before, it had been a week since the fire. I still felt as if I was forgetting something important. I _knew_ something was missing from my memory, I just couldn't figure out what it was… And it was driving me insane.

"Ky!" I hear someone call me.

I stop and turn around to see who it was. Nico was sprinting towards me, looking overjoyed. There was a playful smile on his lips and his dark eyes were alight. He's looked like this pretty much every time I've seen him since I regained consciousness a week ago.

He reaches me and picks me up, twirling me around. I laugh, while trying not to kick anyone. He finally puts me down, both of us feeling a bit dizzy.

Everyone who was near us was trying to hide their smiles. I blush and take his hand. We carry on, catching up to Danielle and the others.

* * *

"Are you sure I can't go up and sing?" I ask Scarlett, not for the first time this week.

"No. You're still not healed enough." she says, crossing her arms and blocking the stairs leading up to the stage.

I sigh. "Fine. I guess this is my punishment from Apollo for saying I didn't want to perform every night." I say, turning back to Nico.

We turn and start walking towards Percy, Annabeth, and the others, grabbing a couple of s'mores on the way.

We get to the seats and sit down, watching as Scarlett, Danielle, and Keegan set up. My eyes drift over to the flames of the campfire closest to me. I hadn't taken the time to notice, but these smaller campfires were enchanted like the giant one before them.

Spirits must have been high tonight. The fires were flaming at least fifteen feet tall and they were bright, cheery red and a sunshiny yellow color.

The flames were almost hypnotizing. The yellow and the red blended and twined together, mixing and making an orange color and then going back to their normal colors. Suddenly, a vivid scene flashed before my eyes.

_I barged through the door, greeted by a wall of flames and smoke. I run through the flames and down the hallway. My eyes were squinted and I was choking on the putrid air, my skin burning._

_I look around, seeing the family pictures and my mother's beautiful framed photography ruined. The glass was shattered out of the frames and littering the floors. I draw my attention away from the carnage and run towards my mom's room._

_I burst through the doorway and into the inferno of a room. I make my way to the bed, prepared to see my mom but finding instead-_

_John._

I gasp, breaking out of the flashback. My siblings appeared to be in the middle of a song but I couldn't make sense of what they were singing.

"Oh, gods. The flames. I remember." I whisper, feeling as if I was about to have a panic attack.

I look around and see everyone's attention was on the stage. I grab Nico's hand and squeeze it. He looks over at me, a smile on his face. It melts away when he sees how devastated I look.

"Kyra, what's wrong?" he asks, creases forming on his forehead.

"John." I say, my voice hollow.

"What about John?" he asks, tilting his head to the side a bit.

"He-he was there. He was in the house. He was the one on the bed, not my mom." I say, a single tear rolling down my cheek.

"Wait, what?" he asks, looking baffled.

I start breathing rapidly, feeling like my lungs were collapsing in on themselves.

"Ky, calm down. It's going to be alright." Nico says, placing a hand on my back.

"What's going on?" Percy asks, leaning over.

"She's just tired. I think I'm going to take her back to her cabin." Nico says.

"Gotcha." Percy says, although I could hear the doubt in his voice.

"Come on, Ky." Nico says, taking my arm and making me get up.

I do, walking down the stone steps and towards the path, feeling like my whole world just fell apart right in front on my eyes.

**A/N:**

**So, did anyone see ****_that _****coming? Where do you think her mom is? What do you think Callie's next move is going to be?**

**Yes. Surprise update blah blah blah. Saturday I'm going to upload the last two chapters of this story and then the first chapter of Salvation! **

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	39. Chapter 39

**Chapter 39**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

The next few days at camp were a blur. Just training and more training. I scaled the lava wall three or four times, without getting burned. I shot countless arrows. I rode the pegasi. I played capture the flag. But nothing seemed to get my mind off of John for at least one second.

He was all I could think about. The image of the flames consuming him was permanently burned into my mind. Any time I closed my eyes, I saw him. Again and again.

What made it worse was that I hadn't heard anything from my mom. I called her everyday and I still hadn't gotten any response back. I was getting really worried. What if Callie had gotten to her too?

* * *

It was three days after I had remembered everything that had happened at the house. I was having a pretty nice day. It was actually the first day where John wasn't haunting my thoughts every single second of the day.

I was sitting on the dock, sketching and listening to music, when I felt the boards vibrate beneath me. I turn around to see Mo coming towards me. I smile and wave him over. He walks over and sits down.

"Whatchya drawing?" he asks, peeking at the unfinished picture.

"Not sure really. It started out as just an eye but I think I'm going to make it to where octopus tentacles are gushing out of it." I say, biting the end of my pencil and examining the half-finished eye.

"Well, that's um, different." Mo says.

"Okay, what's wrong with you?" I ask, turning to look at him.

"What do you mean?" he asks.

"Usually when I do something like that with a picture, starting out simple and then making it something weird and gross, you gush all about how awesome it's going to look. You're not doing that. What's wrong with you?" I ask again, poking him with the end on my pencil as if he was some sort of alien life form.

He sighs and looks down at his feet dangling above the water. I could tell something was up.

"What is it? You know you can tell me anything." I say, placing my hand on his shoulder.

"My mom called me a few minutes ago." he says.

"And?" I ask.

"I know where your mom is and why she hasn't answered any of your calls." he says, looking like he loathed himself for having to tell me what he was about to tell me.

**A/N:**

**Unto the next and final chapter! What do you think Mo found out about Krya's mom?**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


	40. Chapter 40

**Chapter 40**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

* * *

I felt hollow. She was basically gone now. Yes, she was still alive. But she was crazy. I wanted to go to her and tell her it would be alright but I knew I couldn't and nothing would be alright anymore. They wouldn't allow her any guests yet anyway.

When I got home, I'd go. I'd visit her. I don't know if she'd ever get out. I think her mind was permanently damaged. The sleeping trance hurt it, Lucas leaving hurt it even more. John dying in that fire was the last straw. She just finally snapped and couldn't handle it anymore.

Mo told me everything. Apparently his mom, Adrienne, had been at work when my mom had come into H&M, where his mom works. My mom had seemed off but Adrienne had just pushed the thought aside.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that she knew something _definitely_ wasn't right. My mom seemed to be talking to no one in particular. Just carrying on a conversation as if someone had been standing right next to her.

When Adrienne approached her, she went ballistic. She completely freaked out and started throwing clothes all over the place. She was screaming nonsense.

One of the other employees called 9-1-1 and an ambulance was there within five minutes. They sedated her and were able to take her to the hospital.

But before she left, she wanted to talk to Adrienne. She did and said she just wanted to see her children again. They then wheeled the gurney into the ambulance and drove away, leaving Adrienne standing there, not quite knowing what to think.

I myself didn't know quite what to think. I didn't know what emotion to feel. I had absolutely no clue what I was going to do after summer was over. I didn't know whether I was going to stay at camp or try and figure out something else. I had no one.

Nico and the others all tried to comfort me. Nothing really worked though. I struggled through it though, knowing in my heart, that things had to get better at some point. Like Nico said, there's always a way. Sometimes it's just a little tricky finding it.

**A/N:**

**AND IT'S DONE! So, how did you guys like the ending? I'm so sorry to make you guys wait for Salvation, but I need to get going to class. I promise that when I get home in a couple of hours, I'll post the first chapter of it! In the meantime, I'm leaving you guys to think about what the hell just happened...**

**XOXO,**

**Mrs-diAngelo25**


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